Calextone specializes in the music of western Europe from the 13th through the 15th centuries, and has been performing regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2013. The ensemble has performed both live and streamed concerts on the San Francisco Early Music series, and, in lieu of a pandemic-canceled live concert, a streamed concert for Early Music Hawai’i. Programs have included music from the time of Boccaccio’s Decameron, the Roman du Fauvel, Carmina Burana,   the French & German Renaissance, and the Ars Subtilior. The group collaborates frequently with diverse artists, such as Peter Maund, percussion, writer/poet/musician Lawrence Rosenwald, and singer Temmo Korisheli, among others.

Calextone takes its name from the 14th-century ballade of the same name, celebrating the Goddess Callisto. The members— colleagues and friends for decades, who have toured, taught, and performed all over the world, are Allison Zelles Lloyd, voice and harp; Frances Blaker, recorder and hammered dulcimer; Letitia Berlin, recorder, douçaine, voice, and psaltery; Shira Kammen, vielle, harp, and voice.