1. What is it that you do or sell?
Myschyffe Managed is an a cappella group specializing in Renaissance era madrigals. (A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six.) We also like to throw in some more modern music, from different genres and time periods, to keep it varied and fun.
2. Where are you located?
We are based in the Southern New Hampshire area and we travel to faires and events around New England.
4. When did you start selling or performing?
The group was formed about 13 years ago by a small group of people who loved attending and participating at faires and also loved to sing. (We still have three of the original, founding members.) They thought that some authentic, period music could really add to the overall ambiance of their local faires and found that this aspect seemed to be missing on the circuit. They formed Myschyffe Managed in order to fill that gap and help to recreate a small part of the musical past for the entertainment and appreciation of the public.
5. What is your local faire or home faire?
We call the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire our home Faire. This is the Faire we have had the longest relationship with and where we have built some strong connections with other vendors, performers, and patrons in the local renaissance faire community. It is also a charitable organization. For instance, NHRF (New Hampshire Renaissance Faire) was able to donate over $40,000 to local charities this year. It is just a great community and one we are so proud to be a small part of.
6. Do you travel and if so, how far will you go?
We will travel a bit, but not too far from our Southern NH home base. I think the farthest we’ve traveled is about 150 miles, which is to Stowe, VT. We’ve been performing at the Vermont Renaissance Faire since it started back in 2016. We are a large group, so getting 6-10 of us from one place to another is quite an undertaking!
7. What do you have for a set (music/performance?)
Our set-up currently is pretty simple. Just us and our basket. We have a small custom made wooden sign with our name on it which sits in the basket with our mascot, Timber. Timber is a plushie raccoon with a funny story behind him! Feel free to ask us about it, we love to tell the tale.
We’ve considered getting some sort of simple audio/mic system for the future as sometimes it is hard to be heard over the sounds of clashing swords, bagpipes, etc. but time will tell. We often don’t feel that it is needed, so the few times we wish we had some volume assistance are not really enough to tip those scales.
8. Why Renaissance Faires or theme? What is it that made you so interested in this period?
This question may be answered above, but to elaborate: The group was originally formed by a group of people who already had a natural affinity for renaissance faires – the atmosphere, the community, the fun. They also loved to sing and not only loved to sing, but loved to sing complicated and challenging music. Renaissance era madrigals are among some of the most complicated musical compositions, so being able to bring authentic period madrigals to the local Renaissance faire circuit was like a marriage of the two passions for everyone.
9. Do you do this all year long or do you just do it once a year?
We do events throughout the year. Living in New England, “Faire season” is mostly during the summer months so that is our busiest time. We did 6 weekends at 5 Faires this summer and have one more single day Faire coming in late September.
We also do other genre festival-type events such as Celebrate Samhain and the Magickal Marketplace in Nashua.
Additionally, we have a full holiday repertoire and we perform at the Nashua Holiday Stroll and several nights at the Strawbery Banke Museum Candlelight Stroll in Portsmouth, NH.
We’ve also done concerts and private events, like weddings.
10. Plug your website or fan page here (or both)
We mainly communicate with our friends and fans via our Facebook page. We’ve also just recently joined the Instagram bandwagon. We have a traditional website as well, but it doesn’t have a lot of info.
https://www.facebook.com/MyschyffeManaged/Instagram: @MyschyffeManaged http://myschyffemanaged.com/
