Soloists' Biographies

Katarina Livljanić

Katarina Livljanić, singer and musicologist, is one of the principal international specialists in medieval chant performance. Born on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, she decided to become a medieval music performer at a very early age, training at the Zagreb Music Conservatory before moving to France to study voice (with Guillemette Laurens and Glenn Chambers) and musicology (with Marie Noël Colette). She directs the vocal ensemble Dialogos, specializing in medieval chant and liturgical theatre of the Glagolitic tradition. For her work in this field, she was decorated for cultural achievement in 2002 by the president of Croatia.

Dialogos has been acclaimed by critics in major international journals and has toured in most European countries, in the USA, Canada, North Africa and Latin America, in all the main festivals (Saintes, Utrecht, Ambronay, Royal Festival Hall of London, the Metropolitain Museum in New York, Edinburgh International Festival...), including radio and television broadcasts. Their CDs have received press distinctions in international music magazines, including Diapason d'or, Choc du Monde de la musique, Goldberg 5 stars).

Katarina Livljanić obtained a Ph.D. at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, based on research of medieval chant manuscripts of Southern Italy. She is currently Maître de conferences in medieval music at the Sorbonne University in Paris where she codirects a medieval music performance Master programme.

She spent a semester as visiting lecturer and directed a Gregorian chant schola at Harvard University. In 1998 she founded a chant performance program at the University of Limerick in Ireland. She is regularly invited to numerous universities in Europe, in the United States and Canada as a teacher and resident artist. She has emerged as an important international speaker about medieval chant performance and publishes articles in specialized reviews wordwide. In 2002 she was a guest artistic advisor at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. With Benjamin Bagby, she has been awarded a Cornille Visiting Professorship at the Wellesley College (USA) in 2007.

Her most recent solo project, a musical theatre production entitled Judith based on the masterpiece by the 16th-century Croatian poet Marko Marulić, was premiered at the Ambronay Festival in 2006.

Upcoming Concerts

28 October 2011
Early Music In Columbus, USA
Chant Wars

13, 14, 15 January 2012
Musée National du Moyen Âge, Paris, France
Frankish Phantoms

25, 26 February 2012
Da Camera of Houston, USA
Fragments for the End of Time

See full concert schedule

News

Between Music and Story-telling

In the context of a performance by Sequentia of The Rheingold Curse at the Radovljica Early Music Festival (Slovenia) in August, 2011, Benjamin Bagby spoke with Katarina Šter. Read the English original version of the interview here

Bagby and Rodenkirchen on WDR3

In June, 2011, Benjamin Bagby and Norbert Rodenkirchen were interviewed by journalist Anna Austrup for a Sequentia 'Portrait' broadcast in the West German Radio's prestigious 3rd program, in conjunction with a live broadcast concert in Cologne's 'Romanesque Summer' concerts series.
Listen to the recorded interview (in German)

2011 Thornton Scholarship

Laura Osterlund is the recipient of the 2011 Barbara Thornton Memorial Scholarship.
Read more

Benjamin Bagby on WQXR

On January 23, 2011, Bagby joined host David Garland at New York's classical music station, WQXR, to share his insights on the challenges and pleasures of bringing medieval music to life, and to present recordings by Sequentia.
Listen to the recorded interview

Beowulf on DVD

Benjamin Bagby’s legendary performance of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf (part I) recorded live in Helsingborg, Sweden.
Visit the Beowulf website