Sian Ricketts enjoys a multi-faceted career as a period woodwinds specialist, singer, and medieval pedagogue. She is a core member of Piffaro and Alkemie, and she also performs and records medieval, Renaissance and baroque chamber music and orchestral repertoire with ensembles including Makaris, Trobár (OH), Apollo’s Fire (OH), Theotokos (NY), and Science Ficta. As a co-managing director and performer with Alkemie, she has appeared on series including the Berkeley Early Music Festival, Arizona Early Music, the Five Boroughs Music Festival, Music Before 1800, and the San Francisco Early Music Series. With Alkemie she co-produced and performed on the soundtrack for the BAFTA award-winning videogame Pentiment by Obsidian Entertainment (pub. Xbox), as well as A Fine Companion (a dream-pop/shoegaze/ psychedelic rock rendering of troubadour texts) and Love to My Liking (a historically-informed realization of trouvère melodies and lyrics). Sian also co-leads the experimental ensemble Freelance Nun, creating music that transcends boundaries of time, genre, and dimension. Freelance Nun is currently exploring early American ballad traditions as well as creating acoustic + electric arrangements of the music and texts of Hildegard von Bingen and Herrad von Hohenburg. Sian holds a D.M.A. in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University with concentrations in voice and baroque oboe, and has served as faculty at Fordham University and the Amherst Early Music Festival. When not making music, Sian can be found reading science fiction and fantasy novels, baking, or tie-dying.