With profound thanks to all

by Mark Powell, Executive Director

Dear friends of Cappella Romana,

I am humbled to report that our livestream concert has now, at last count, reached nearly 80,000 people worldwide.

As a result, we have decided to keep the livestream link up at least for a few more days. You can still view it here, with or without a facebook account.

I would like to express my deepest thanks to so many in our audience all over the world who made donations during the livestream.

Your gifts helped us pay for many extra last-minute expenses, including hiring the video crew.

Portland Baroque Orchestra donated the use of their video equipment: again thank you Abby and Matt! And St. Mary’s Cathedral made available their wired internet connection, for which we are deeply grateful: thank you Monsignor Pat, Jennifer, Sister Connie, Mary Jo, and Alex.

Through all of this we also honored the contracts of our professional artists, and are heartened to see that many other companies are doing similarly.

The following is the letter I included in the program book for this concert, including especially recognition of the Pacific Youth Choir, who were unable to participate in this livestream performance.

Thank you again for your support of Cappella Romana.

Thank you for being with us “virtually” for this performance, now presented without an in-person audience, but with you at home watching online. I am grateful to my colleague Abigail McKee from Portland Baroque Orchestra who loaned us their video streaming equipment free of charge and assisted us in making the virtual concert possible.

And thank you for supporting this important music that, in my view, has the greatest potential to soothe and calm us in times of distress.

This project has been in the making for nearly two years, after I heard Pacific Youth Choir’s amazing skills at their annual summer retreat. I am also grateful to Mia Hall Miller and Brandon Brack as well as Ruth Finn and Maria Karlin at PYC for their tireless efforts to make this project a success.

It is tragic and regrettable that all the months of hard work that Pacific Youth Choir did to prepare for this project went without a performance, however we are looking at the future to make something happen on that front!

Our rehearsals for this project have shown us—adults who are active as professional singers—that the new generation holds out great hope for excellence in choral music in the future.

Thanks also to my dear friend and colleague Benedict Sheehan who crafted and led a beautiful program for PYC and Cappella Romana to sing together.

The program is now performed only by our professional singers, whose contracts have been honored even in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

Finally, I want to say something very important: Please make a gift to the performing arts today. Don’t wait, and it doesn’t have to be to Cappella Romana or to Pacific Youth Choir. Just support an organization you truly love, because they will need your support to carry on their work that serves you and the world, in the short and long term. Thank you.

Yours always,