Dead Songs: Lust & Longing

Metropolitan Museum of Art / 2025

Music of the Middle Ages is often treated as a relic—sacred, distant, and buried. Part performance and part recital, Dead Songs rediscovers those lost “dead” songs and transplants them into our day. Conceived by medieval music specialist leiken and theater artist Andrew Ondrejcak, Dead Songs is a queer resurrection that reimagines medieval laments and ecstasies as contemporary expressions of desire, grief, and devotion. 

Ten unearthed songs – five laments and five ecstasies – invite audiences to witness the return of music nearly lost to time. Staged within the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dead Songs offers a rare opportunity to hear medieval song recast in a new light, set against the evocative splendor of the Medieval Sculpture Hall.

Concept and Musical Direction by leiken
Directed by Andrew Ondrejcak 
Wardrobe by Vivienne Westwood 
Fashion Styling by Alpha Vomero 
Make-up by Marco Campos
Artist Portraits by Georgia Neirheim 
Production Stills by Maria Baranova

Performed by 
leiken
Andrew Ondrejcak
Meg Harper

Musical Ensemble:
Doug Balliett, Keyboard & gamba
Eve Beglarian, Voice
Ruben Dax, Percussion
Keir GoGwilt, Violin

Commissioned by MetLive Arts and made possible by the Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art.