"Shira Kammen"
"Shira Kammen"
Multi-instrumentalist and occasional vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of the early music Ensemble Alcatraz and Ensemble Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, The Boston Camerata, the Balkan group Kitka, The King's Noyse, the Newberry and Folger Consorts, the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to providing music on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia and Japan, and on the Colorado, Rogue, Green, Grande Ronde, East Carson and Klamath Rivers.
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel: a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea; an English Country Dance band, Roguery, the early music ensembles Cançoniér and In Bocca Al Lupo, as well as frequent collaborations with performers such as storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music experts Margriet Tindemans and Anne Azéma, and in many theatrical and dance productions. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music at Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
She has played on several television and movie soundtracks, including "O", a modern high school-setting of Othello and "The Nativity Story", and has accompanied many diverse artists in recording projects, among them singers Azam Ali and Joanna Newsom. Some of her original music can be heard in an independent film about fans of the work of JRR Tolkien. The strangest place Shira has played is in the elephant pit of the Jerusalem Zoo. She has recently taken courses in Taiko drumming and voiceover acting.
Shira Kammen received her degree in music from UC Berkeley and studied vielle with Margriet Tindemans.
A member for many years of Ensemble Alcatraz and Ensemble Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, The Boston Camerata, and The King's Noyse, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips.
She has performed and taught in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, Morocco and Japan, and on the Colorado and Rogue rivers. Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several new groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel; a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea; and Trouz Bras, a band devoted to the dance music of Celtic Brittany.
Shira can also be heard on the Magnatune recording by John Fleagle and with Pam Swan.
Discography:
1988 - "Visions And Miracles" with Ensemble Alcatraz
1989 - "Ars Magis Subtiliter" with Ensemble Project Ars Nova
1990 - "Danse Royale" with Ensemble Alcatraz
1991 - "The Island Of St. Hylarion" with Ensemble Alcatraz
1991 - "Lo Gai Saber" with Camerata Mediterranea
1992 - "Homage To Johannes Ciconia" with Ensemble Alcatraz
1994 - "Remede De Fortune by Guillaume De Machaut" with Ensemble Alcatraz
1994 - "The Unicorn" with Anne Azéma
1994 - "Wings Of Time" with Lauren Pomerantz
1995 - "Le Roman De Fauvel" with Boston Camerata and Ensemble Alcatraz
1995 - "Unseen Rain" with Ensemble Alcatraz
1996 - "Angeli" Ensemble Alcatraz
1996 - "Le Jeu D'Amour" with Anne Azéma
1996 - "World's Bliss" with John Fleagle
1997 - "The Cloister And The Sparrow Hawk: Songs Of The Monk Of Montaudon (Twelfth Century)" with Tim Rayborn and Alison Sabedoria
1997 - "Song Of Songs: Come Into My Garden" with Tapestry
1998 - "Cantigas" with Camerata Mediterranea
1998 - "Celtic Roads"
1998 - "Provence Mystique" with Anne Azéma
2000 - "Cantigas De Amigo" with Ensemble Alcatraz.
2002 - "Music Of Waters"
2002 - "Pastourlle" with Fortune's Wheel
2003 - "The Almanac: Time & The Turning Wheel"
2003 - "The Castle Of The Holly King: Secular Music For The Yuletide"
2004 - "Across The River: Settings of poems from Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien"
2006 - "Mistral: Winds Of Song In France, Italy And Brittany"
2008 - "Ragged, Rent And Torn"
