Monthly Archives: January 2015

The First Review of ‘Good Friday in Jerusalem: Medieval Byzantine Chant from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre’

jerusalem_CDA week before its official release, Audiophile Audition gives a rave review to a new Cappella Romana CD researched and directed by Alexander Lingas:

This is the all-male version of Cappella Romana, and Alexander Lingas has his Portland-based ensemble going from strength to strength, perfectly judged balances among the melodists and those singing the ison, or lower drone notes, and executing these sometimes hugely challenging chants with razor-sharp precision and flawless unanimity. But what strikes me the most is the superb tonal quality of the group, rich, full, and velvety smooth in a genre that too often gives way to acerbic sonic ineptitude and soloistic grandstanding which gives chant a bad name. The resonance of the Stanford Memorial Church in California is expertly caught, though you might want to boost the volume a little. This disc is, simply, irresistible.

—Steven Ritter

Read the full review here.

Listen to ‘In Procession to the Mount of Olives’ on Soundcloud.

New Book Published by Laudan Nooshin

BB240392-F5BD-46AA-B876-7615673A8C40Laudan Nooshin’s new book – ‘Iranian Classical Music: The Discourses and Practice of Creativity’ – has been published by Ashgate Press. The book is a study of creative performance in Iranian classical music and seeks to better understand creative processes in music more generally. The result of more than 20 years research, the book examines the ways in which musicians talk about creativity and analyses creative practice itself. Further details can be found here: http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754607038

City Students and Staff at the Royal Musical Association Annual Research Students’ Conference

This year’s RMA Research Students’ Conference was held in the Music Department at the University of Bristol from Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th January 2015 and there was a good representation of City students and staff presenting papers.

DMA student Annie Yim presented her practice-based research on ‘Regaining a Lost Performing Tradition: The Schumann Circle and the Young Brahms’s Piano Trio Op. 8a’, including live demonstration at the piano. Another pianist and DMA student, Sasha Karpeyev, gave a paper on the Edna Iles’ ‘Medtner Collection’ at the British Library, and talked about the value of this collection and its implications for Medtner performance practice.

Two PhD students also presented papers: in ‘”Yellow Bird” and Pan: Caribbean Musical Migrations’, Rachel Hayward gave a summary of her research plotting the migration routes of the ‘Choucoune’ song family from 1957 to the present day; and Sam MacKay presented a paper entitled ‘A Shared history? North African Musical Heritage and the Public Sphere in Contemporary Marseille’.

As well as the research students, Laudan Nooshin was at the conference in her new capacity as RMA Council member. She participated in a roundtable panel on the topic of ‘Perspectives on Analysing Music and Sound’ along with other panel members: Rachel Beckles Willson (Royal Holloway), Emma Hornby (University of Bristol), Bettina Varwig (Kings College, London) and Warwick Edwards (University of Glasgow).

All of the presentations were well received and generated enthusiastic comments and questions from the audience.

Further information on the Royal Musical Association and the conference:

http://www.rma.ac.uk

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/gradschool/pg-activity/conferences/rma

Byzantine Music at Trinity Wall Street

CR at Trinity Wall Street

CR at Trinity Wall Street

On Saturday, 3 January 2015 Reader in Music Alexander Lingas took his vocal ensemble Cappella Romana to Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York for a programme of early and contemporary music from the Greek Orthodox tradition entitled ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas in the Christian East’. This concert was presented by Trinity Wall Street as part of its annual Twelfth Night Festival, a series directed by Julian Wachner which also featured performances by ensembles including the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra, The Bishop’s Band, Clarion Music Society, Ensemble Viscera, Gotham Early Music Scene, Grand Harmonie, and a Roomful of Teeth. On this occasion the members of Cappella Romana included recent City Ph.D. graduate Spyridon Antonopoulos, who was a featured soloist in two Byzantine chants. A video of the entire performance is available: https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/video/twelfth-night-cappella-romana