Dr. Alexander Lingas, founder and music director of Cappella Romana, will lead the Byzantine Chant Ensemble in the Coronation at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, 6 May 2023.
Buckingham Palace recently announced that “at the request of His Majesty, in tribute to his late father His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Greek Orthodox music” will feature in the Coronation Service of Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May 2023.
Dr. Lingas is forming the Byzantine Chant Ensemble especially for the occasion. Its singers have served as cantors in cathedrals and parishes in the UK and Greece, as educators for the Byzantine Music School of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, and in such specialist choirs as the Greek Byzantine Choir, the Maïstores of the Psaltic Art, Tropos, and Cappella Romana.
All of the service music for the Coronation, including the Greek Orthodox music, will be disclosed later by Buckingham Palace.
Reflecting on his involvement in the Ceremony, Dr. Lingas said:
As a scholar and practitioner of the ancient traditions of Byzantine chant, I am deeply honored to have been asked to help realize the request of His Majesty, King Charles III that the Coronation include a musical tribute to his late father, His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Integrating Greek psalmody into the equally ancient rites of the Coronation Service is a profound and beautiful demonstration of the deep appreciation for Orthodox Christianity long shown by both His Majesty and the late Duke of Edinburgh.
Watch Dr. Alexander Lingas on Greek Television discussing the news!
About Dr. Alexander Lingas
Alexander Lingas, Music Director and founder of Cappella Romana, is a Professor Emeritus of Music at City, University of London, and a Research Fellow of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge, UK). His present work embraces not only historical study but also ethnography and performance. In 2018 His All-Holiness, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, bestowed on him the title of Archon Mousikodidáskalos. He is currently the Spring 2023 Artist in Residence at the Institute of Sacred Arts at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, New York.
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