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CAPPELLA ROMANA Vocal Ensemble Opens its 2009-10 Series in August with Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance In Portland, Seattle, and in British Columbia Culminating with a Performance at MusicFest Vancouver
"When East meets West ... a captivating recital"
--Gramophone Magazine (April 2009)
6 July 2009 -- PORTLAND, Ore. -- Celebrated vocal ensemble Cappella Romana performs a program of music by world famous Estonian composer Arvo Pärt this August in Portland, Seattle, and Salt Spring Island and Vancouver, BC. MusicFest Vancouver (formerly Festival Vancouver) presents Cappella Romana for the second time in their vocal series, which this year also features ensembles from Germany, Taiwan, and Finland. Led by Alexander Lingas, Cappella Romana was one of North America's first proponents of the music of Pärt - it gave the North American premiere of Pärt's Passio in 1994, which was then broadcast on NPR that year.
Renowned for spiritually profound musical settings of sacred Latin texts, Arvo Pärt has also set many Eastern Orthodox hymns. In this concert, patterned on an Orthodox service of supplication (Paraklesis or Moleben), Cappella Romana offers a selection of Pärt's English and Slavonic works including Triodion and excerpts of his monumental Kanon Pokajanen, the Kanon of Repentance.
PORTLAND: Fri, Aug 7, 2009, 8pm St. Philip Neri Church, SE 18th & Division 503.205.0715
SEATTLE: Sat, Aug 8, 2009, 8pm Holy Rosary Church, 4139 42nd Ave SW (at Genesee). 800.494.8497
Free pre-concert talks with Dr. Lingas at 7pm. Tickets start at $22, discounts for seniors and students http://www.cappellaromana.org
CANADIAN TOUR
SALT SPRING ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Sun, Aug 9, 2009, 8pm Salt Spring Island Arts Centre. http://artspring.ca Information at 250-537-2125.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Mon, Aug 10, 2009, 5:30pm, Christ Church Cathedral, Downtown Vancouver, BC. Presented by MusicFest Vancouver, one of Canada's largest international summer classical music festivals. For tickets and information, visit http://musicfestvancouver.ca or Ticketmaster 604-280-3311.
Cappella Romana's name (lit. "Roman Chapel") refers to the Medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe, as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople ("New Rome") and its Slavic commonwealth. Each program in some way reflects the musical, cultural and spiritual heritage of this ecumenical vision. A variety of photos, sound samples, and video clips available upon request.
ABOUT CAPPELLA ROMANA
Its performances "like jeweled light flooding the space" (Los Angeles Times), Cappella Romana is a vocal chamber ensemble dedicated to combining passion with scholarship in its exploration of the musical traditions of the Christian East and West, with emphasis on early and contemporary music. Its name is derived from the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which included not only "Old Rome" and Western Europe but also "New Rome" (Constantinople) and its commonwealth of Slavic countries.
Flexible in size according to the demands of the repertory, Cappella Romana is one of the Pacific Northwest's few professional chamber vocal ensembles. It has a special commitment to mastering the Slavic and Byzantine repertories in their original languages, thereby making accessible to the general public two great musical traditions that are little known in the West. Leading scholars have supplied the group with their latest discoveries, while its music director has prepared a number of the ensemble's performing editions from original sources. In the field of contemporary music, Cappella Romana has taken a leading role performing the works of such European composers as Michael Adamis, Ivan Moody, Arvo Pärt, and John Tavener, as well as the work of North Americans.
The ensemble presents annual concert series in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Critics have consistently praised these for their unusual and innovative programming, including numerous world and American premieres. The group has also frequently collaborated with such artists as conductor Paul Hillier, chant specialist Ioannis Arvanitis, and composer Ivan Moody.
Cappella Romana tours regularly and made its European début in March 2004 at the Byzantine Festival in London with concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia, followed by 2005 appearances at the Byzantine Studies Symposium of Queen's University, Belfast (N. Ireland) and the University of Limerick (Rep. of Ireland). The Metropolitan Museum of Art presented the ensemble in its New York début for the exhibit "Byzantium: Faith and Power 1261-1557" in April 2004, which included the release of a CD by Cappella Romana, Music of Byzantium, to
accompany the exhibit. The ensemble has also appeared in Festival Vancouver (B.C.) the Bloomington Early Music Festival, the Indiana Early Music Festival (Indianapolis) and at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), and the Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, BC). Future engagements include the J. Paul Getty Museum again in December 2006, the Smithsonian Institution, and regional touring in the Pacific Northwest.
Cappella Romana has released eleven compact disc recordings to date: Tikey Zes Choral Works and When Augustus Reigned (Gagliano), The Akáthistos Hymn by Ivan Moody and Epiphany: Medieval Byzantine Chant (Gothic), Music of Byzantium (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Lay Aside All Earthly Cares: Orthodox Choral Music in English, The Fall of Constantinople, Byzantium in Rome: Medieval Byzantine Chant from Grottaferrata, The Divine Liturgy in English in Byzantine Chant, Richard Toensing: The Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ (CR Records), and the compilation CD Byzantium: 330-1453 published by the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Forthcoming recordings include a disc of the Divine Liturgy set by Peter Michaelides, Mt. Sinai: Frontier of Byzantium, and music from Cyprus.
ALEXANDER LINGAS
Alexander Lingas is Cappella Romana's founder and artistic director. Under his leadership Cappella Romana's programming continues to expand, including music from the very oldest musical manuscripts to contemporary works by some of the world's most notable composers. He has directed Cappella Romana on National Public Radio and BBC Radio 3, at the Eclectic Orange Festival in California, Festival Vancouver (BC), and recently at the Byzantine Festival in London, which featured a gala concert in St. Paul's Cathedral, performed before HRH The Duke of Kent and an audience of over 2,000.
His musical pursuits have won him many awards, including Fulbright and Onassis grants for musical studies in Greece, a fellowship in Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., two fellowships at the University of Oxford, and speaking engagements on the BBC Radio 3, at Yale University, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. From 1998 until 2001 he was British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford University's St. Peter's College. He has also served as a lecturer and advisor for the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Lingas is currently a Senior Lecturer in Music at City University (London, UK) and a Fellow of the University of Oxford's European Humanities Research Centre. He was formerly an Assistant Professor of Music at Arizona State University.
In addition to publishing scholarly articles in journals, encyclopedias and books, Dr. Lingas has composed music for the Orthodox Church, while also having served as a cantor in Portland, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., Phoenix, and Oxford. In May 2001 he collaborated with Ioannis Arvanitis, Lycourgos Angelopoulos and the Greek Byzantine Choir on the first celebration in 500 years of Vespers according to the ancient Rite of Hagia Sophia, which was held in the chapel of St. Peter's College. His upcoming projects include books for Overseas Publishing Associates on Sunday Matins in the Rite of Hagia Sophia and Byzantine experiments in polyphony, as well as a general introduction to Byzantine Chant for the Yale University Press. During the academic year 2003-2004 Dr. Lingas was in Princeton, New Jersey as the recipient of two prestigious awards: a membership in the School of Historical Studies of the Institute for Advanced Study and an NEH Area Studies Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.
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