---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alexander Lingas <alexander.lin
...@ehrc.ox.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 12:42 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Powell, 503.236.8202 msg line; 503-927-9027 mobile;
m...@cappellaromana.org
CAPPELLA ROMANA Vocal Ensemble Brings
Renaissance Encounters: Greek East and Latin West
to Portland, Seattle, and on Tour to Princeton, Yale, and Washington, DC,
Culminating with a Concert in New York City
"When East meets West ... a captivating recital" -Gramophone Magazine
(April 2009)
15 October 2009 - PORTLAND, Ore. - Celebrated vocal ensemble Cappella Romana
continues its 18th annual series with never-before heard Greek and Latin
music from the 15th- and 16th-century Mediterranean world. A nine-member
ensemble drawn from across North America will perform the program, the
culmination of a multi-year research project on music and Hellenism by
Cappella Romana's founder and artistic director Alexander Lingas.
Writing from his home in England, Lingas explains, "This program explores
the musical results of two kinds of encounters-real and imagined-between
Greeks and Latins during the Renaissance. The first half of the concert
offers musical witness to the real encounters, the patterns of concord and
conflict in the Mediterranean after the Crusades. The second half surveys
the imagined encounters, explored through music by Renaissance composers who
sought to recover and adapt the musical legacy of Classical Hellenism."
Particularly notable on the program are several newly edited ecstatic
Byzantine chants receiving modern premieres with these performances, and
music by Franghiskos Leontaritis, a composer from Crete who left the island
to work with Adrian Willaert at San Marco in Venice and Orlande de Lassus at
the Bavarian ducal chapel in Munich. Selections of actual Ancient Greek
Music (invocations to the Muses) will be followed by works including the
virtuosic motet In Hydraulis by Antoine Busnoys and selections from Orlande
de Lassus' Prophetiae Sibyllarum, which combine a classicizing Latin text
with shockingly chromatic harmonies.
SEATTLE: Fri, Nov 6, 2009, 8pm, St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2100
Boyer Ave E.
PORTLAND: Sat, Nov 7, 2009, 8pm, St. Mary's Cathedral, NW 18th and Couch.
FOR BOTH CITIES: Tickets at 503.205.0715 or 800.494.8497 Free pre-concert
talk with Dr. Lingas at 7pm. Tickets start at $22, discounts for seniors and
students www.cappellaromana.org
EAST COAST TOUR
PRINCETON: Thu, Nov 12, 8pm, Princeton University Chapel,
www.princeton.edu/hellenic
WASHINGTON, DC: Fri, Nov 13, Dumbarton Oaks, Georgetown, www.doaks.org
YALE (NEW HAVEN): Sat, Nov 14, 7:30pm, Yale University,
yale.edu/macmillan/hsp
NEW YORK CITY: Sun, Nov 15, 4:00pm, Music Before 1800 at Corpus Christi,
mb1800.org
Cappella Romana's name (lit. "Roman Chapel") refers to the Medieval Greek
concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and
Western Europe, as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople ("New
Rome") and its Slavic commonwealth. Each program in some way reflects the
musical, cultural and spiritual heritage of this ecumenical vision. A
variety of photos, sound samples, and video clips available upon request.
ABOUT CAPPELLA ROMANA
Its performances ³like jeweled light flooding the space² (Los Angeles
Times), 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. Its
name is derived from the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene
(inhabited world), which included not only ³Old Rome² and Western Europe but
also ³New Rome² (Constantinople) and its commonwealth of Slavic countries.
Flexible in size according to the demands of the repertory, Cappella
Romana is one of the Pacific Northwest¹s few professional chamber vocal
ensembles. It has a special commitment to mastering the Slavic and Byzantine
repertories in their original languages, thereby making accessible to the
general public two great musical traditions that are little known in the
West. Leading scholars have supplied the group with their latest
discoveries, while its music director has prepared a number of the
ensemble¹s performing editions from original sources. In the field of
contemporary music, Cappella Romana has taken a leading role performing the
works of such European composers as Michael Adamis, Ivan Moody, Arvo Pärt,
and John Tavener, as well as the work of North Americans.
The ensemble presents annual concert series in Portland, Oregon and
Seattle, Washington. Critics have consistently praised these for their
unusual and innovative programming, including numerous world and American
premieres. The group has also frequently collaborated with such artists as
conductor Paul Hillier, chant specialist Ioannis Arvanitis, and composer
Ivan Moody.
Cappella Romana tours regularly and made its European début in March
2004 at the Byzantine Festival in London with concerts at the Queen
Elizabeth Hall, St. Paul¹s Cathedral, and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of
St. Sophia, followed by 2005 appearances at the Byzantine Studies Symposium
of Queen¹s University, Belfast (N. Ireland) and the University of Limerick
(Rep. of Ireland). The Metropolitan Museum of Art presented the ensemble in
its New York début for the exhibit ³Byzantium: Faith and Power 12611557² in
April 2004, which included the release of a CD by Cappella Romana, Music of
Byzantium, to accompany the exhibit. The ensemble has also appeared in
Festival Vancouver (B.C.) the Bloomington Early Music Festival, the Indiana
Early Music Festival (Indianapolis) and at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los
Angeles), and the Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, BC). Future
engagements include the J. Paul Getty Museum again in December 2006, the
Smithsonian Institution, and regional touring in the Pacific Northwest.
Cappella Romana has released eleven compact disc recordings to date:
Tikey Zes Choral Works and When Augustus Reigned (Gagliano), The Akáthistos
Hymn by Ivan Moody and Epiphany: Medieval Byzantine Chant (Gothic), Music of
Byzantium (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Lay Aside All Earthly Cares:
Orthodox Choral Music in English, The Fall of Constantinople, Byzantium in
Rome: Medieval Byzantine Chant from Grottaferrata, The Divine Liturgy in
English in Byzantine Chant, Richard Toensing: The Kontakion on the Nativity
of Christ (CR Records), and the compilation CD Byzantium: 330-1453 published
by the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Forthcoming recordings include a
disc of the Divine Liturgy set by Peter Michaelides, Mt. Sinai: Frontier of
Byzantium, and music from Cyprus.
_______________________________________________--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbo...@gmail.com
(or) kalamos...@aol.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
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