Alexander Lingas Steps Down as Music Director of Cappella Romana

Cappella Romana has announced that the Board of Directors has accepted the request of Founder and Music Director Alexander Lingas to move into a new role as Music Director Emeritus.

Dr. Lingas will conduct the final concerts of Cappella Romana's current season on March 6 and 7, 2026, featuring Maximilian Steinberg's extraordinary Passion Week. Following these concerts, the Board will name Dr. Lingas as Music Director Emeritus. He has decided to step down as Music Director in order to concentrate on his academic work in the fields of Eastern Orthodox liturgy and music. Cappella Romana will look forward to inviting Dr. Lingas to take the podium as a guest director in the years to come following the appointment of a new Music Director.

Alexander Lingas writes, “I gathered a group of friends under the name ‘Cappella Romana' to offer a benefit concert in 1991 representing, in embryonic form, a vision of combining passion with scholarship to explore the musical traditions of the Christian East and West. I am deeply grateful to all the artists, staff, board members, volunteers, generous benefactors, and audiences who joined me in cultivating that vision over the last 35 years. It has yielded a bountiful harvest: a world-class ensemble with an international reputation for its broadcasts, commissions and premieres of new works, educational outreach, live performances, recordings, research initiatives, and publications, both pastoral and scholarly.”

He continues, “Having discussed with Cappella Romana's Board the idea of succession over the past few years, I decided that the time had now come for me to relinquish my current role in order to give priority to scholarship and theological education. I will continue to serve the liturgical and musical traditions of the Christian Roman oikouméne through my affiliations with the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge (UK) and the Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, New York.”

The Board has appointed John Michael Boyer, currently Associate Music Director of Cappella Romana, as Interim Music Director for the 2026-27 season, the concerts of which will be announced in March. Guided by Cappella Romana's strategic plan, over the next year the organization will conduct an international search for a new Music Director. 

Commenting on this change, John Paterakis, President of the Board of Directors, said: “I am so grateful for the work done by Alexander, not only in creating Cappella Romana, but in growing us into the premier artistic organization for the establishment of Byzantine and Orthodox music in the greater canon of global music. From the very beginning Cappella Romana was far more than a modest regional organization and made a national and international impact almost immediately. That impact has now expanded considerably with our recording label Cappella Records and Cappella Romana Publishing. Alexander and I have been friends for many decades, and I have always admired his steady scholarship in this field. He is clearly the leading scholar on Byzantine music in the English-speaking world, and we support his decision to focus now on his important written contributions to the field.”

Cappella Romana will hold two receptions around the March concerts of Steinberg's Passion Week, celebrating Dr. LIngas and his many achievements while also marking Cappella Romana's 35th anniversary: 

Seattle: A pre-concert reception will take place on Friday, March 6, 2026 at 6:30pm prior to the concert at 7:30pm at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. 

Portland: A post-concert reception will take place on Saturday, March 7, 2026 at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The concert at St. Mary's Cathedral in NW Portland begins at 2:00pm and all audience members are welcome to join the reception after the concert, across town at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral (3131 NE Glisan Street), the site of Cappella Romana's founding in 1991. 

ABOUT CAPPELLA ROMANA

Founded in 1991 by Alexander Lingas, Cappella Romana is a professional vocal ensemble with a mission to experience and understand the transcendent beauty of the sacred music of the Christian East and West, especially of Byzantium, cultivating this rich cultural heritage and sharing it worldwide. The ensemble is known especially for its presentations and recordings of medieval Byzantine chant, Greek and Russian Orthodox choral works, and other sacred music that expresses historic traditions of a unified Christian inheritance. Cappella Romana is one of the longest-running professional vocal ensembles in North America, expressing its mission not only through performances here and abroad but also through recordings and publications, scholarship and education, engagement with heritage communities, and new artistic creation. cappellaromana.org