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The Orthodox Christian News Service

Published by Capella Romana, December 7, 2003

Northwest-based Ensemble Cappella Romana
Invited to Perform in London, New York; Awarded Major Travel Grant

Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash - Cappella Romana is thrilled to announce that The Byzantine Festival in London will present the ensemble in spring 2004 with three distinct programs planned for Queen Elizabeth Hall in South Bank Centre (March 9), St. Paul’s Cathedral (March 11), and St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral (March 13). The programs will feature music that Cappella Romana has championed since its inception: Medieval chant from East and West, Greek and Greek-American choral works, and new music, including the world premiere of “The Passion of Saint Catherine” by Ivan Moody.

Cappella Romana’s participation is funded by The Byzantine Festival in London and in part through support from The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions, a public-private partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Department of State, and The Rockefeller Foundation, additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and administered by Arts International. Past grant recipients to this highly competitive program have included such ensembles as the Kronos Quartet, Mark Morris Dance Company, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C., Piffaro-The Renaissance Band, New York Philharmonic, Boston Camerata, and many others (www.artsinternational.org).

“It is a great honor and a vindication of our efforts to receive not only an invitation to perform in such prestigious circumstances, but also to have our acceptance of it supported by The Fund for U.S. Artists,” says Alexander Lingas, director of the ensemble. “Bearing in mind that we will be making our New York début only a few weeks later, I am thrilled to see doors opening for us in the world’s artistic capitals.”

The following month Cappella Romana will tour New York and environs with the program “Music for the Fall of Constantinople: 1453.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (www.metmuseum.org) will present the ensemble on April 18 during the museum’s major international loan exhibit “Byzantium: Faith and Power 1261-1557” as the final event of an international symposium on Byzantine art. Two other concerts—at Yale University (April 16) and Princeton University (April 19)—will be presented and underwritten by the Hellenic Studies Departments of each institution.

Cappella Romana will present its next program “When Augustus Reigned: Christmas Music from the Byzantine Tradition,” in Portland (January 2), Seattle (January 3), and La Conner, Washington (January 4). Concert information is available online at www.cappellaromana.org.

Directed by founder Alexander Lingas, Cappella Romana is a vocal chamber ensemble dedicated to combining passion with scholarship in its exploration of the musical traditions of the Christian West and East, 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.