Sequentia
Friday, October 23, 2026
7:30 PM
Trinity Episcopal Church
125 E. Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Sequentia returns to our series with a program that explores the trials and tribulations of the medieval traveler.
Benjamin Bagby, renowned for his gripping performance of the epic poem Beowulf, resumes his role of a medieval bard, a fiery musical storyteller. Inspired by Anglo-Saxon elegies, the duo of Bagby (voice and Anglo-Saxon harp) and Norbert Rodenkirchen (medieval flutes) presents a soundscape of life in a world of perilous travel, memory, and longing.
About the Program
Travel during the Middle Ages was always slow and dangerous. Whether a voyage between continents or just a simple trip to the next village, religious shrine or market, the relative security of travel which we take for granted did not exist. Aside from knights and other fighting men, ministeriales, monks and clerics, merchants were on the road or on the water, buying and selling their products, followed by entertainers of all kinds -- jongleurs, storytellers and musicians, but also the actors known as mimi, with their notoriously bad morals. Spiritual voyagers made pilgrimages to holy places (Rome, Canterbury, Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostela), or just imagined those voyages, and every traveler invoked the protection of some higher power. But a voyage could also be allegorical, teaching the listeners about the inner voyage to redemption and self-knowledge. In the northern, pagan worldview, the body and soul of a dead king traveled to his final resting place, taking an unknown route. The cold northern seas carried battle-hardened men fleeing from trouble or searching for a friendly shore. Sequentia’s program explores some of these facets of the medieval traveler and his world.
Sequentia is one of the world’s most respected and innovative ensembles for medieval music. It is an international group of singers and instrumentalists – united in Paris under the direction of the legendary performer and teacher Benjamin Bagby– dedicated to the performance and recording of Western European music from the period before 1300. The size and disposition of the ensemble is determined by the repertoire being performed, and ranges between an instrumental/vocal duo to a large vocal ensemble.
Based on meticulous and original research, intensive rehearsal and long gestation, Sequentia’s virtuosic performances are compelling, surprising in their immediacy, and strike the listener with a timeless emotional connection to our own past musical cultures.
Vocalist, harper and medievalist Benjamin Bagby has been an important figure in the field of medieval musical performance for over 40 years. Since 1977, when he and the late Barbara Thornton co-founded Sequentia, his time has been almost entirely devoted to the research, performance and recording work of the ensemble. Apart from this, Mr. Bagby is deeply involved with the solo performance of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic oral poetry: an acclaimed performance Beowulf has been heard worldwide and was released as a DVD in 2007. In 2017, he was awarded the Artist of the Year Award by REMA, the European Early Music Network.
In addition to researching and creating over 75 programs for Sequentia, Mr. Bagby has published widely, writing about medieval performance practice; as a guest lecturer and professor, he has taught courses and workshops all over Europe and North America. Between 2005 and 2018 he taught medieval music performance practice at the Sorbonne – University of Paris.
He currently teaches medieval music performance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany.
The composer and flute player Norbert Rodenkirchen feels at home both in medieval music and in new music of our times. He studied flute at the music academy in Koeln and has been the flute player of Sequentia since 1996, works regularly with the French ensemble Dialogos and directs the ensemble Candens Lilium, spezialized on a sounding dialogue between medieval times and today. With all these ensembles he performs in international festivals.
He is also in demand as a composer and producer of music for theater, film and CD projects. Norbert Rodenkirchen was the artistic director of the acclaimed “Schnuetgen Konzerte” 2003 - 2011. Additionally he has given workshops on medieval instrumental improvisation at various international conservatories. In the last years he released the CDs Medieval Echoes, Carmina Burana Today, and a live recording of his evergreen solo program Hameln Anno 1284.
Norbert Rodenkirchen is also co-author to the new book, Textless and Instrumental Monophony, 1180 -1550, Olive Music, 2023.