One of the hottest tickets in Portland and Seattle this weekend is for a performance that features a piece entirely in Russian. Oregon Art Beat’s Pat Kruis takes us to a rehearsal for Cappella Romana.
This ensemble calls itself Cappella Romana, or Roman chapel. That’s because the choir often sings the kind of music you’d expect to hear in an ancient chapel. This weekend Cappella Romana celebrates its 20th anniversary.
“As with many ensembles it started as a group of friends." says director Alexander Lingas who gathered those friends to stage a fundraiser for a Greek Orthodox church rebuilding after the San Francisco earthquake. “And what can I do as a graduate student? I can’t give them a million dollars but I can get my friends together to do a concert.”
After that first concert, Cappella Romana discovered that Byzantine music has a healthy following.
“One of our earliest surprises was the first all-chant program. And it was one of the best audiences we’ve ever had,” Lingas recalls.
That audience filled Portland’s St. Mary’s Cathedral. Since then, Cappella Romana’s reputation as a chamber choir has grown. Its tour this year includes Boston, Yale, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
“We’ve performed at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. Performed in Ireland, been on the radio in Europe several times and our recordings get reviewed over there.”
The ensemble depends almost entirely on Oregon talent.
“One of the things about Cappella Romana too is that it would not be possible without being supported by a vibrant vocal scene.... certainly our singers sing for many other groups just as I did when I was living here.”
Lingas now teaches in London, but flies back to Portland to continue his relationship with Cappella Romana.
To celebrate the group’s 20th birthday, the ensemble has chosen Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, entirely in Russian. It’s the composer’s 20th century take on this old tradition.
“You don’t have to be Russian to feel the beauty because it speaks across cultures,” says Irina Burkett, who first experienced an All-Night Vigil in Russia, her homeland.
The tradition combines three services -- the evening prayers, the morning prayers and the first hour prayers.
“This choral work, which is a masterpiece, really makes me feel that I was cleansed and renewed. It’s so beautiful I just feel renewed,” Burkett says. “It is written for many different parts, so not just soprano, alto, tenor, bass, but often times this music breaks into 6, 8 or 9 or more parts. It transports us beyond our daily existence. Somehow there is a sense of the transcendent, of getting beyond ourselves.”
What began as an act of charity among friends has taken on a life of its own.
“I didn’t know what would happen 20 years down the line. I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. It was mostly trying to serve the music and the tradition,” Lingas says.
While in Russia vigils usually last all night long, this performance lasts two hours.
Cappella Romana performs Friday night at St. Mary’s Cathedral, and Sunday at at Trinity Episcopal Church.
Related:
Watch a preview of the chorus performing Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil
