Thornton Scholarship

Barbara Thornton, co-founder of Sequentia, died from a brain tumor on November 8, 1998, at the age of 48 in Cologne, Germany. Tributes to Barbara appeared in many publications at the time of her tragic death.

A pioneer in the rediscovery and performance of the music of Hildegard von Bingen and other medieval repertories, and founding member of the ensemble Sequentia, Barbara Thornton will be forever remembered for her dedication and passion for medieval music.

The Scholarship

At the suggestion of Barbara's longtime partner and Sequentia co-founder Benjamin Bagby, Early Music America created a scholarship fund for young musicians, which is a living memorial to Barbara Thornton's work and dedication to her craft.

The $2,000 award will go to an outstanding and highly-motivated (and possibly unconventional) young performer of medieval music who seeks to widen his/her experience through more advanced study and/or auditions in Europe. Applicants should be citizens of the Americas, and should submit 3 copies of the following to EMA: a letter describing the proposed use of the scholarship, a resume and description of their background in medieval music, a recording (CD or cassette) of a recent performance of medieval music in which they are featured, and a letter of recommendation from a principal teacher. For more information, contact the EMA office.

Recipients

2008: Emily Eagen
2006: Mary E. Larew
2004: Wolodymyr Smishkewych
2001: Moira Smiley

Remembering Barbara Thornton

"Ms. Thornton, whose soprano voice had a mezzolike hue and texture that gave it a distinctive character, was a specialist in the music of the 12th-century abbess Hildegard von Bingen, and it was largely because of Ms. Thornton's performances and recordings with Sequentia that Hildegard and her works have lately become the focus of scholarly and popular interest."

New York Times, November 15, 1998

"Thornton was concerned both to establish the individuality of the music she was performing and also to bring it to her audiences not as some museum piece but as a living experience, to be witnessed as a performance might have been almost a thousand years ago ... Barbara Thornton's voice was an important element in Sequentia's sucess. Andrew Porter wrote in the New Yorker that she had 'one of the most beautiful sopranos -- strong and pure, and passionate -- that I have heard in a long time.' Other critics variously describer her as having 'a tone as focused and intense as a medieval reed instrument,' sounding 'like a divine messenger of absolute truth.'"

Martin Anderson, The Thursday Review, The Independent, November 19, 1998

"Barbara herself was a fanatic in her art; and there are too few fanatics of her sort. She passionately devoted herself to the single repertory of medieval music, choosing not to perform other repertories for the sake of that one. And she let that repertory be so challengingly and productively hard, for herself and for the artists she directed and the students she taught ... What I remember most vividly, and will miss most, is simply the sound of Barbara's voice as she sang. The sounds she made were not always pretty; they were, across her astonishingly wide emotional range, urgent, harsh, meditative, giddy, exultant, angelic ... It was an intense, exhilarating aesthetic experience to hear Barbara sing."

Lawrence Rosenwald, Early Music America, Winter 1998-1999

Upcoming Concerts

13 April 2010
Konzerthaus Berlin, Germany
The Rheingold Curse

19 June 2010
Montalbâne Festival, Germany
Fragments for the End of Time

24 September 2010
Cité de la Musique, Paris
The Rheingold Curse

See full concert schedule

News

Visions of Paradise

In September 2009 a new film about the life of Hildegard von Bingen, directed by Margarethe von Trotta and starring Barbara Sukowa, was released in Germany. More

Interview with Benjamin Bagby

WNYC, New York Public Radio, aired an interview with the ‘Beowulf’ performer, B. Bagby. Listen to the show

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