Artists

Artistic Director

With an eclectic repertory that spans from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, acclaimed cellist/gambist Caroline Nicolas enjoys an active and multifaceted career as one of the outstanding performers in her field. Noted for her “eloquent artistry and rich, vibrant sound” (Gainesville Times), she has been praised as “one of the finest gambists working today” (Gotham Early Music Scene). She regularly appears with leading ensembles as soloist, chamber musician, and music director, bringing her unique ability to combine emotionally rich interpretations with a historically inquisitive spirit.

Ensembles she has worked with include the English Concert, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, Ars Lyrica Houston, Juilliard Baroque, Harmonia Stellarum, Philharmonia Baroque, Pacific MusicWorks, Kammerorchester Basel, New World Symphony, and Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein. She recently completed her tenure as music director of New Baroque Orchestra. Festival appearances include the Boston Early Music Festival, Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Bach Festival Leipzig, and Styriarte Festival in Austria. Notable venues include the KKL Luzern, Berliner Philharmonie, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Benaroya Hall. Her performances have been broadcast on KING FM in Washington, KUHF in Texas, WDIY in Pennsylvania, and CCTV in China. Notable collaborations include such eminent musicians as Andrea Marcon, Amandine Beyer, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Jordi Savall, William Christie, Rachel Podger, Harry Bicket, and Stephen Stubbs.

Recent performances include concerts with Philharmonia Baroque, Tempeste di Mare, the Victoria Symphony, Victoria Baroque, Early Music Access Project, Emerald City Music, Sonnambula, Yale Voxtet, the Sebastians, Teatro Nuovo, Night Music, Twelfth Night, and Parthenia. Her concert with Emerald City Music was listed in the Seattle Times as a top pick for classical music concerts that season.

Notable distinctions include having been selected as a fellow of The English Concert in America, an award given to young musicians “who appear likely to make significant contributions to the field of early music.”  As the winner of The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance concerto competition, she made her solo debut in Alice Tully Hall, New York City. Her debut album, Pièces en Solitude, was released in June 2026 on the Avie Records label.

A native of Winnipeg, Canada, Caroline was first introduced to the cello as a young child. Too restless to stick with a single steel strung instrument, she pursued early music studies with Phoebe Carrai at The Juilliard School, and with Christophe Coin and Paolo Pandolfo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. Caroline resides in New York City.When not performing, she can typically be found occupying herself with reading, chess, crosswords, or watching Star Trek with her husband, lutenist Kevin Payne. More information is available at www.carolinenicolas.com.

Ben Matus enjoys a varied career in music: bringing to life music regardless of whether it was written in the Middle Ages or yesterday.  Ben performs with early music groups on various bassoons, dulcians, shawms, recorders, bagpipes, and whatever instruments he can get his hands on all along the East Coast—including Alkemie Medieval Music Ensemble, New York Baroque Incorporated, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, The Clarion Society, Opera Lafayette, The Washington Bach Consort, The Handel and Haydn Society, Mountainside Baroque, and more.  In addition to his performances in concert halls, Ben plays and sings for the Chivalrous Crickets, a band focused on the folk traditions of the British Isles, America, Canada, and their early music roots.  With Alkemie, Ben recently prepared and recorded the music for the video game Pentiment.  In his spare time Ben can be found attending his friends’ concerts (pandemic permitting), learning new instruments, developing new hobbies, or recording birds deep in the woods.  

Lutenist Kevin Payne is active as a recitalist, accompanist, and continuo player. Recent ensemble work includes performances with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Blue Heron, Handel and Haydn Society, and Bach Collegium San Diego. Festival appearances include Caramoor, Tanglewood, Spoleto, and Newport Classical. Performance venues include Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany. His playing has been broadcast on a number of nationally syndicated radio programs including Sunday Baroque and Performance Today. 

When not performing, Kevin enjoys cooking, reading, watching Star Trek (P’Tach!) and attempting to delay the inevitable (and often imminent) demise of the houseplants he shares with his wife, cellist Caroline Nicolas.

Alyssa Weathersby is a versatile, award-winning vocalist whose “strong soprano voice” delivers performances deemed “an embarrassment of riches” (Jeanné McCartin). Most recently, she joined Trinity Church’s new music ensemble NOVUS in September for their concert Renewal: Undivided , which featured the world premiere of Andrew Yee’s Trans Requiem. Last season, Alyssa performed the role of Healer in the world premiere of Hildegard, Reborn with the NYPL at the Lincoln Center, as well as the role of Nature in Early Music Access Project’s regional premiere of James Shirley and John Locke’s Cupid & Death at the famed Blackfriars Playhouse, where she previously starred as Venus in their production of Venus & Adonis in 2022.

As a collaborator with Alkemie, Alyssa joined the Verdant Medicine tour in 2022, and she sang the role of Narrator in Markaris’ world premier of Tam Lin at the Five Boroughs Music Festival in 2021. She has also been heard as a soprano soloist singing new music with Theotokos at St. Mary’s on Grand St. and at Trinity Church Boston in their Messiah and Saint Andrew’s Singer Series. 

Favorite and notable roles in opera and musical theatre include Morgana (Alcina), Blanche (Jane Eyre), Blondchen (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Alice and Comtesse Adele u/s (Le Comte Ory), Sibella and Phoebe u/s (Gentleman’s Guide), Cunegonde u/s (Candide), Elizabeth (Second Nature), Skokànek (Příhody lišky Bystroušky), First Priestess (Iphigénie en Tauride), Fire (u/s) and Nightingale (L’enfent et les Sortilèges), Clorinda (Cinderella), Mrs. Wilkinson u/s and Dance Captain (Billy Elliot), and Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte).

In 2022, Alyssa placed in the Quarterfinals of the prestigious American Traditions Competition for multi-genre vocalists. She received an honorable mention in the 34th Annual Young Texas Artists Music Competition in the classical voice division. After winning the Collegiate Vocal Competition hosted by the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra, Alyssa performed as the soprano soloist in Schubert’s Magnificat and Haydn’s Missa Sancti Gabrielis at the Winner’s Concert. Other soloist performances of major works include Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai and Paukenmesse, and Handel’s Messiah. Alyssa has performed a broad range of choral and symphonic masterworks, and has served as the soprano section leader for the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Mercury Chamber Orchestra. 

“Alyssa is one of those rare humans who does a great number of things at a very high level. She has captivated Early Music Access Project audiences with her acting and sings 17th century music with clarity and ease.” —David McCormick

Learn more about Alyssa and her work as an acclaimed director-choreographer at www.alyssaweathersby.com. 

Musical omnivore Tracy Cowart enjoys a wide range of interests, from twelfth-century monophony to American folk music. She performs with numerous chamber and choral ensembles including Musica Sacra, the Chivalrous Crickets, Makaris, Rose of the Compass, Theotokos, Trobar, Voices of Ascension and the New York Virtuoso Singers. Recent recording projects include The Gentle Shepherd (the earliest extant Scottish ballad opera) with Makaris. Tracy is faculty at the Amherst Early Music Festival, the Western Wind summer workshops, and at Fordham University, where she teaches voice and co-directed the Collegium Musicum. Tracy is also an avid forager, amateur herbalist, and a card-carrying member of the NY Mycological Society. 

Sian Ricketts enjoys a multi-faceted career as a period woodwinds specialist, singer, and medieval pedagogue. She is a core member of Piffaro, and she also performs and records medieval, Renaissance, and baroque chamber music with ensembles including Trobár, Makaris, Theotokos, Science Ficta, and Apollo’s Fire. With Tracy, Sian also co-leads the experimental ensemble Freelance Nun, exploring early American ballad traditions as well as creating acoustic + electric arrangements of medieval music. Sian has served as faculty at Fordham University, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Pinewoods Early Music Festival. 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.

As Co-Directors of Alkemie, Sian & Tracy have appeared on series including Arizona Early Music, Capitol Early Music, the ChamberQueer Festival, the Five Boroughs Music Festival, the Met Cloisters, the Morgan Library, Music Before 1800, National Sawdust, San Francisco Early Music, and the Berkeley Early Music Festival. They co-produced and performed on the soundtrack for the Peabody award-winning game Pentiment by Obsidian Entertainment, and recently released A Fine Companion, a dream-pop/shoegaze/psychedelic rock rendering of troubadour texts; Love to My Liking, a historically-informed realization of trouvére melodies and lyrics; A Worthy Mirror, a commissioning project of women and non-binary composers of trobairitz texts, and Blood, Booze & Betrayal, a folk-baroque collection of jovial macabre from the English-speaking Atlantic. Upcoming programming projects a collaboration with the InSeries on a new production of the Roman de Fauvel with Alkemie and a recording of neo-medieval arrangements of Hildegard von Bingen and Herrad von Hohenburg with Freelance Nun.