Timeless Crisis and Undead Music with Björn Schmelzer

Björn Schmelzer is a Belgian conductor, musicologist, and anthropologist, though he frequently crosses disciplines and incorporates many academic and creative influences in his work. He founded the vocal ensemble Graindelavoix in 1999, a group devoted to radical, heterogeneous reimaginings of vocal music from the Medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary periods. We go deep here, exploring Björn's unique ideas around the meaning of modernity, crisis, and trauma in the artistic experience, the essence of the Gothic, the undead-ness of ancient polyphony, and his critique of reactionary/conservative tendencies in Early Music scholarship.