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Hildegard And Her Sisters celebrates the great composer, mystic, poet, philosopher, scientist, rabble-rouser and visionary abbess Hildegard von Bingen who lived from 1098-1179. She was born 32 years after the Battle of Hastings and 47 years before the start of construction of Chartres Cathedral.

But Hildegard sounds cutting edge in pianist Katelyn Bouska‘s hands, as Kate combines seminal works by Hildegard rewritten (with no holds barred) for solo piano, and other women composers Ruth Schönthal, Maya Miro Johnson, Sláva Vorlová, Amy Beach and Bouska herself, taking us on a journey through the “Dark Night Of The Soul.”

How many pianists would venture to reimagine Hildegard von Bingen’s music for solo piano, immersing us into a sonic world of profound interior calm? As you know, each track represents a complete take. This is real music, just as Kate performed it in Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

I was asked to teach a music history seminar at Curtis, one that was required for all incoming first-year students. In developing these lectures I remembered my own first music history course as a student, a life-changing event that transferred my latent passion for archaeology into music research, “uncovering and preserving bones,” so to speak. One of these musical “bones” is music by Hildegard. Whether I return to this music academically or for personal enjoyment, I feel Hildegard’s inspiration without fail. I spent the next semester teaching and re-discovering this ancient yet familiar world from a professor’s stand point, enjoying the process as my students experienced it for themselves, sometimes for the first time.

Katelyn Bouska, Piano