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About Cappella Romana
Mission The mission of the vocal ensemble Cappella Romana is to experience and understand the transcendent beauty of the sacred music of the Christian East and West, especially of Byzantium, cultivating this rich cultural heritage and sharing it worldwide. Vision Cappella Romana transforms hearts and minds through encounters with the sacred musical inheritance of the…
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Bissera Pentcheva Interview on Hagia Sophia in Kathimerini
Greek news outlet Kathimerini has published a new interview with Stanford University’s Bissera Pencheva who has worked with Cappella Romana as part of our Hagia Sophia project and recording. Read the interview in the original Greek at Kathimerini.gr and see the translation below: What distinguishes Hagia Sofia from other churches and monuments of the Christian…
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Sun of Justice: A Two-Fold Offering – Part One
With this two-fold offering of traditional Byzantine Music, we seek to give the listener two distinct yet complementary experiences: first, that of being in a traditional Orthodox church somewhere in the Middle East, wherein one choir sings in Greek and the other in Arabic; and second: that of being in a traditional Orthodox church in…
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Arctic Light II: Northern Exposure – Program Notes
The genesis of this concert program occurred last season in January 2017 after renowned Finnish choral conductor Timo Nuoranne was slated to appear with Cappella Romana to direct Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Vigilia (All-Night Vigil). Timo Nuoranne has championed that work in particular throughout his career, having performed it with both Finnish and non-Finnish choirs, and made…
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Fanfare Magazine Review for Cyprus: Between Greek East and Latin West
New Fanfare Magazine review for our Cyprus: Between Greek East and Latin West recording! “Musicologist Alexander Lingas continues his mesmerizing exploration of the music of both traditions with a release that offers, as he states in his extensive notes, ‘a sampling of the Byzantine and Latin sacred music that someone could have encountered during the…
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Somewhere In Between: Ivan Moody’s Greek Liturgy
For someone familiar with Greek Orthodox liturgy, today’s performance will echo the experience of actual services, with abbreviations appropriate to a concert. At the same time, those new to the form may experience the performance as though it were liturgically complete even with the adjustments made for a concert context. Cappella Romana presents here the…
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Pentecost from the Traditions of Constantinople Program Notes
The J. Paul Getty Villa 17 & 18 May 2014 Cappella Romana Performs Medieval Byzantine Chant Program Pentecost from the Traditions of Constantinople The second part of our program features music for Pentecost, the Sunday fifty days after Easter on which Christians commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. The services for…
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From Constantinople to California – Program Notes Part Two
The Eastern Roman Empire—commonly called “Byzantium” after the ancient name of its capital Constantinople — not only survived the downfall of Rome by a millennium, but also created a musical tradition that remains both alive and influential today. In From Constantinople to California Cappella Romana will follow this tradition from its medieval origins to contemporary Los…
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LIVE IN GREECE: From Constantinople to California – Part Four
As we approach the release of LIVE IN GREECE: From Constantinople to California, we’ll be sharing some excerpts from the liner notes to give you a bit of background into the programming of this recording. Part One Part Two Part Three III – Liturgical Choral Music in the Greek Orthodox Churches of the western United…
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Marcel Pérès offers program notes for Codex Calixtinus Concert
Ibi barbare gentesomnium mundi climatumcatervatim occurrunt,munera laudis Domino deferentes, Alleluia Foreign nations hasten therefrom all over the world,bringing with them gifts of praiseto the Lord. Alleluia!(First antiphon, Vespers of St James) Since the ninth century the apostle St James has been the object of great faith and fervour in the Western Christian world. Even today…
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Keeping Up with the Venetians — Part One
Keeping Up with the Venetians Program Notes for Venetian Baroque: Galuppi + Vivaldi + Bortniansky The islands in the Venetian lagoon, which by the 8th century had banded together to ally themselves with the Empire of the Romans governed from Constantinople (Byzantium), quickly became one of the inhabited world’s great centers of power and wealth.…
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Keeping Up with the Venetians — Part Two
Keeping Up With The Venetians Continued from Part One Program Notes for Venetian Baroque: Galuppi + Vivaldi + Bortniansky Galuppi further exceeded his contractual duties by teaching composition to some of the Cappella singers. One such singer was the Ukrainian Dmitro (or more commonly Dmitry) Bortniansky. When Galuppi left St. Petersburg in 1769, he took…
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