Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia

CAPPELLA ROMANA
+ALEXANDER LINGAS

Choral virtuosity meets high technology in an extraordinary journey across time and space. Built in the sixth century, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul inspired centuries of composers with its unique acoustics.

But under the Ottoman Empire, music was banned, and the sound of the Hagia Sophia was forgotten — until now. Two scholars at Stanford University, art historian Bissera Pentcheva and computer music scholar Jonathan Abel, used advanced sound mapping techniques to create digital filters reproducing the distinctive acoustics of the Hagia Sophia.

At PRAx, those filters and creative speaker placements around Detrick Hall will bring Hagia Sophia to life in a program of Medieval Byzantine chant by the Portland-based Cappella Romana choir.