>The Aaron Copland Fund for Music and BRAVO San Diego recently awarded grants to Cappella Gloriana, San Diego's premier 16-voice a cappella ensemble.
From the Copland Fund's Performing Ensembles program the chamber choir was awarded funds to launch a 2006 competition for new American choral works written especially to be performed by Cappella Gloriana or by similar professional groups. Cappella Gloriana will perform and record the winning compositions in a November 2006 concert in San Diego. An official announcement of the composition contest appears elsewhere on this website.
Cappella Gloriana performed Nov. 19 at BRAVO's annual arts showcase as one of 90 San Diego-area nonprofit groups selected for a cash award and a slot on the showcase. The society gala brings together more than 1,200 San Diego arts, business and civic leaders who attend short performances by more than 1,600 local artists.
Ahead for Cappella Gloriana are holiday concerts Dec. 30 at St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego and Dec. 31 at Escondido First Night at the California Center for the Performing Arts.
In February 2006 the choir performs on the music series at First United Methodist Church in San Diego; in March the ensemble marks its tenth anniversary season with a concert at St. Andrew's Episcopal church, Encinitas, and in June the singers observe Mozart's 250th year with a San Diego concert combining Mozart works with California mission music of the same period.
Cappella Gloriana returned to Germany in August for a ten-day, eight-concert tour that began in Berlin and ended in Dornheim and included a festival celebrating the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the 900-year-old city of Gehren in Thuringia. Cappella Gloriana first performed in Gehren in 2003.
Cappella Gloriana performs a cutting-edge mix of contemporary works and early-music classics in concerts that juxtapose Bach, Mozart, Handel, Tallis and Byrd with Britten, Messiaen, Poulenc, Copland and Tavener. The choir can be heard on a 2002 holiday disc, O Holy Night: Christmas with Cappella Gloriana and on a 2001 CD, Channel Crossings, features English and French choral repertoire from the 16th and 20th centuries. The men of Cappella Gloriana perform on a disc of California Mission Music.
Under the director of conductor Stephen Sturk, some of San Diego's most accomplished singers perform with Cappella Gloriana – singers who, as individuals, have performed and recorded with major opera companies, ensembles and orchestras throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Sturk and Virginia Sublett are co-founders and co-artistic directors.
The ensemble is named for an allegorical title for England's Queen Elizabeth I.
Here's what they're saying about Cappella Gloriana:
“The chamber chorus impresses with a radiant sound.”
“… the choir demonstrated dynamic range and a sense of internal suspense sung with perfect intonation and tight clusters.”
“The ensemble … demonstrated mastery with sure intonation of the most difficult sound combinations, softest pianos and dissonant clusters.”
Thueringer Landeszeitung
“an extraordinary evening of church music”
Thueringer Allegemeine