Member
Brooklyn, New York
Website:
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Early Music Skills & Interests
Bagpipes, Dulcian, Oboe, Recorder, Shawm, Voice - Soprano
Early Music Affiliations
Administrator, Board Member -EMA, Educator, Music/Artistic Director, Performer, Writer
Biography
Sian Ricketts is an early wind player and singer in Brooklyn, NY who is deeply invested and interested in the ways in which early music can bridge connections between teachers, students, amateurs, professionals, and listeners. She is a core member of Piffaro and Alkemie, and she also performs and records medieval, baroque, and new chamber music and orchestral repertoire with ensembles including Trobár (OH), TENET (NYC), Theotokos (NYC), Makaris, and Science Ficta. With Alkemie she co-produced and performed on the soundtrack for the BAFTA award-winning videogame Pentiment, as well as a fine companion (a dream-pop/shoegaze/psychedelic rock rendering of troubadour texts), Love to My Liking (a historically-informed realization of trouvère melodies and lyrics), and the November 2026 release of A Worthy Mirror (newly-commissioned settings of female troubadour texts by female and non-binary composers). Sian also co-leads the experimental ensemble Freelance Nun, creating music that transcends boundaries of time, genre, and dimension. Freelance Nun is currently exploring early American ballad traditions as well as creating acoustic + electric arrangements of the music and texts of Hildegard von Bingen and Herrad von Hohenburg.
Sian holds a D.M.A. in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University, and has served as faculty at Fordham University, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Pinewoods Early Music Festival, as well as teaching at the City Recorder, New York Recorder Guild, and Recorder Society of Long Island workshops. Her research on the performance practice of Hildegard von Bingen has been featured in the American Recorder Society publication and by the North American Virtual Recorder Society. Sian has served on the board of Early Music America since fall 2024.
