At age 24, Cappella Romana’s Executive Director Mark Powell was living in Belgium, singing and taking in everything the rich culture had to offer. The choir in which he sang, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, rehearsed at the Institut Royal Supérieur de Musique et Pédagogie where a young lad, Lionel Meunier, was a student.

On Wednesday, November 6th, Meunier and the award-winning ensemble he founded in 2004, Vox Luminis, makes their first Portland (and Seattle) appearance, presented by Cappella Romana. “They are at the top of their form right now,” said Powell in recent telephone conversation with OAW. Indeed their concert and touring schedule of 60+ performances a year indicates they are in high demand. Hear why in this exuberant rendering of a Monteverdi piece you might know, Beatus Vir, with its delicious cascading final “amen”:

In this all-Monteverdi concert Vox Luminis vocalists and instrumentalists will perform five works from the 37-work Selva morale e spirituale collection and two works from a collection curated by Monteverdi colleague, Giulio Bianchi. And here’s a special treat that might appeal to your own pedagogical inclinations – two offerings of O bone Jesu o piissime Jesu, one for instrumental only, one for vocal only. 

Learn more about why Monteverdi was considered a compositional pioneer, bridging the Renaissance and Baroque. Why is it said that he brought secular expressiveness to the sacred? Vox Luminis will illuminate us. Complete program and notes are published here on Cappella Romana’s website. 

Cappella Romana presents “Sacro Monteverdi” Vox Luminis in Portland on Wednesday, November 6, 7:30 pm, St. Mary’s Cathedral and in Seattle on Thursday, October 7, 7:30 pm at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. Tickets and more info are here.