Pacific

Published by Cappella Romana, January 25, 2005

Seattle Pacific University Invites Cappella Romana to Perform “Music of Byzantium: The Fall of Constantinople” in March

25 January 2005 — SEATTLE. Cappella Romana has been invited to perform its celebrated program “Music of Byzantium: The Fall of Constantinople” at Seattle Pacific University on Thursday, March 3, 2005, at 7:00pm. Artistic director Dr. Alexander Lingas will conduct.

The evening’s performance is the featured event of SPU's Second Annual Medieval Roundtable, an all-day event with presentations by some of the region's leading scholars in medieval studies.

This virtuosic program of 14th- and 15th-century musical works explores the co-existence and conflict between Greek and Western cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean during the twilight years of Byzantium. Byzantine chant, acclamations for the last emperor of Constantinople, and Latin ceremonial motets will be featured, plus two laments for the fall of Constantinople (1453): one by Manuel Chrysaphes, a singer in the Imperial Chapel of the last Byzantine Emperor, and the other a poignant work of Western polyphony by Guillaume Dufay.

In 2004, Cappella Romana performed "The Fall of Constantinople" at such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York during the museum's major international loan exhibit “Byzantium: Faith and Power 1261-1557,” Yale University, Princeton University, the Bloomington Early Music Festival (Indiana), and at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The ensemble recorded it in summer 2004 with Grammy award winning producer Steve Barnett.

Cappella Romana is a vocal chamber ensemble dedicated to combining passion with scholarship in its exploration of the musical traditions of the Christian East and West, with emphasis on early and contemporary music. Performing music of the Three Romes, its name is derived from the medieval concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which included not only "Old" Rome and Western Europe but also "New Rome" (Constantinople) and "Third Rome" (Moscow) and its commonwealth of Slavic countries.

Cappella Romana made its European debut in March 2004 at the Byzantine Festival in London, with concerts at Queen Elizabeth Hall, at the Greek Cathedral of London, and at St. Paul's Cathedral to an audience of over 2,000, including Sir John Tavener and HRH the Duke of Kent.

Music of Byzantium: THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, SEATTLE ONLY:
Thursday, 3 March 2005, 7:00pm

Seattle Tickets: General admission $20 (festival seating). Student tickets at the door, $8.

Call toll free 866.822.7735 or visit www.cappellaromana.org for tickets.



Volume 7 Number 5 - Tuesday, February 1st, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY

Music of Byzantium: THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, SEATTLE ONLY: Thursday, 3 March 2005, 7:00pm

Music of Byzantium: THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, SEATTLE ONLY:
Thursday, 3 March 2005, 7:00pm