In anticipation of our Oct 25-26 shows A Room of Her Own: Christine’s Defense of Women (tickets available here), Allison ...

We are re-releasing our first ever podcast conversation in time for the return of one of our favorite programs, A Room of Her Own: Christine de Pizan's Defense of Women (coming to Cleveland October 25-26!). Founding members Allison Monroe, Elen...

In this episode Allison and Elena are joined by guest artists Sian Ricketts and Allen Otte, providing you a behind the scenes glance at our upcoming live concerts! We even preview two o...

In this episode the trio explores Christmas traditions in medieval England, including feasting, decorating, knife throwing, caroling, and extra-special holiday treats (dried fruit and nuts disguised as entrails, anyone?)********************...

Join the trio for a romp through The Story of an Early Music Quartet, Sterling Jones's first-hand account of the rise and fall of the Studio der frühen Musik. The Studio helped set the standard for medieval music performance in the 196...

In this episode the trio discusses the influence that Middle Eastern traditions may or may not have had on the development of European medieval music, and what modern re-creators of the music (like Thomas Binkley) have learned from studying tho...

In this episode the trio reads aloud an English translation of "Guigemar," an engaging and somewhat strange lai (or tale) by Marie de France, preserved in a manuscript from the 13th c.  And of course we provide context and color commentary...

Warning: This month’s episode of Trobár Talks is so bad that we can only imagine you all using it as blackmail material years from now. Regardless, we wish everyone a happy holiday season and promise to do better in 2022!! *******In the ...

In this episode the trio was fortunate enough to snag a conversation with Anne Azéma, French-born vocalist, scholar and stage director, as well as the director of The Boston Camerata si...

In this episode we discuss the poetic pastourelle genre popular with 13th c. French trouvères, and read excerpts from Christine de Pizan's longer narrative pastourelle, the Dit de la pastoure (Tale of the Shepherdess). Medieval pastour...

This month we chat with our friend and colleague, David McCormick. David is the Executive Director of Early Music America, the Artistic Director of Early Music Access Project, a beautiful vielle player, and an overall delightful human being. We...

In this episode we take a tour through Conrad von Zabern's 15th c. treatise on singing chant, "De modo bene cantandi choralem cantum." Von Zabern's exhortations are entertaining and still relevant today!...

In this month's episode we interview award-winning playwright and poet Robert Kehew. Kehew was gracious enough to let us use some of the translations from his book Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours, a Bilingual Edition, for our...

A long-overdue episode detailing our 2022-23 season that started a month ago (cue rending of garments and gnashing of teeth). Check out our season details here! 

In this episode we read and discuss a letter that Hildegard wrote to the Prelates at Mainz, who had placed her and her nuns under interdict for failing to follow their instructions. The interdict had deprived them of the ability to sing the div...

In this episode, we explore the symbolically rich descriptions of the appearance and dress of the virtues that Hildegard experienced in her visions, and described in her work Scivias (c. 1150).

In this episode we get a bit more acquainted with one of our favorite saints, the 12th-c. abbess, writer, composer, mystic, visionary, philosopher, and botanist Hildegard von Bingen. As impressive a person as Hildegard was, she was not uncontro...