WFIU 103.7-fm Public Radio from Indiana University

Producer/Host: Angela Mariani

Photo Credit: Larry Fisher, taken at The Paulist Center, Boston Early Music Festival, June 1997,
after Altramar's "Crossroads of the Celts" concert.
The instruments in the picture are a Medieval harp and a gittern,
both built by Timothy G. Johnson.

Angela Mariani, a native of western Massachusetts, is a performer and scholar in the field of Early Music. Coming from a family of jazz and church musicians, her experience also includes many years in the worlds of rock and folk music as well. After leaving the University of Massachusetts in 19...something-or-other with a degree in music theory, she taught and performed freelance in the Boston area before striking out for the midwest, where she earned a graduate degree at Indiana University's renowned Early Music Institute. Angela is also a founding member of the medieval ensemble Altramar, whose CD "Crossroads of the Celts" was described in a 5-star review by Classical Pulse magazine as "a fine demonstration of how medieval music can speak directly to us."

Angela has written, hosted, and produced Harmonia for WFIU on a weekly basis since 1991 locally and 1995 nationally, drawing on commercial, private and rare archival recordings as well as interviews with performers and scholars.

Since fall 2000, Angela and her husband and fellow "Altramartian" Chris Smith, a musicologist and player of Irish traditional music, have lived in Lubbock, Texas (yup), where they are both members of the music faculty at Texas Tech University. They share their house with a yellow tabby cat named Jambo and a Maine Coon Cat named Caoilte. Neither cat has taken up an instrument (yet), although they have been known to sing at dinnertime.

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