Based in Portland, Oregon, Cappella Romana is a vocal performing group founded in 1991 by director Alexander Lingas of City University, London, to perform medieval Byzantine chant and Eastern Orthodox Church vocal music. The group name means "Roman Chapel" and also gives reference to the a cappella style of singing with no instrumental accompaniment. Ivan Moody, Ioannis Arvanitis, Stelios Kontakiotis, and Vladimir Morosan all appear regularly as guest artists to perform and record with Cappella Romana. Their mission statement, given on their website:
Cappella Romana is a vocal 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. Our vision is to give a glimpse of transcendence through the music of the Christian East and West.... Cappella Romana has a special commitment to mastering the Slavic and Byzantine musical repertories in their original languages, thereby making accessible to the general public two great musical traditions that are little known in the West.
In 2010, Cappella Romana collaborated with Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, as well as its Department of Art & Art History, for the musicological research project "Icons of Sound: Aesthetics and Acoustics of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul." The resulting album of music, Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia, was released in 2019, along with a documentary film, The Voice of Hagia Sophia by Duygu Eruçman and Bissera V. Pentcheva. The album features music engineered through a virtualisation of the acoustics of Hagia Sophia, and is the first vocal album ever to be recorded in live virtual acoustics.
Cappella Romana has also brought to light the vocal works of such modern composers as Ivan Moody, Tikey Zes, Michael Adamis, Christos Hatzis, Peter Michaelides, Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, and Fr. Sergei Glagolev.
When performing liturgical works which require orchestral instruments for accompaniment, Cappella Romana partners with the Portland Baroque Orchestra. The size of the vocal ensemble varies according to the demands of a performance, typically between three and sixteen voices.
Iron Noder 2022, 7/30