Cappella Romana in the Stanford Lively Arts Series


Renderings of the new Bing Hall

Cappella Romana will be presenting part in two concerts the Stanford Lively Arts Series during a residency at the university. The concert series will help to open Stanford’s new Bing Concert Hall.

Cappella Romana will also be joining a collaboration between the Stanford faculty of the Art & Art History departments and the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics to explore new research on the acoustics of the famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The collaboration will work to create a performance of both Byzantine Chant and contemporary works with electronically enhanced acoustics to recreate the sound of the Hagia Sophia cathedral.

Hagia Sophia Cathedral

About the Hagia Sophia cathedral:

Hagia Sophia is a great architectural beauty and an important monument both for Byzantine and for Ottoman Empires. Once a church, later a mosque, and now a museum at the Turkish Republic, Hagia Sophia has always been the precious of its time.

The mystical city Istanbul hosted many civilizations since centuries, of which Byzantium and Ottoman Empires were both the most famous ones. The city today carries the characteristics of these two different cultures and surely Hagia Sophia is a perfect synthesis where one can observe both Ottoman and Byzantium effects under one great dome.

About the new Bing Concert Hall:

Bing Concert Hall’s 844 seats are arranged in a “vineyard” format, with seating sections ringing the stage. What’s more, the center-section seating begins on the same level as the stage. The result is a concert experience of unparalleled intimacy, offering exquisite sightlines from all angles and a rare conjoining of artists and audience.