Dr Alexander Lingas
Senior Lecturer
Alexander Lingas is the founder and Artistic Director of the vocal ensemble Cappella Romana and a Fellow of the University of Oxford’s European Humanities Research Centre. His present work embraces historical study, ethnography, and performance. Formerly Assistant Professor of Music History at Arizona State University’s School of Music, he received his Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from the University of British Columbia. His academic awards include Fulbright and Onassis grants for musical studies with cantor Lycourgos Angelopoulos, a Canadian postdoctoral fellowship for study under Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship held at St Peter’s College, Oxford. His publications include articles for The Oxford Companion to Music, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. He is currently working on a study of Sunday Matins in the Rite of Hagia Sophia for Ashgate and a historical introduction to Byzantine Chant for Yale University Press.
Since founding Cappella Romana in 1991, Dr Lingas has appeared with the ensemble at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the J Paul Getty Museum, the Pontificio Istituto Orientale in Rome, the Irish World Music Centre in Limerick, Princeton University, and Yale University. Cappella Romana has been featured on twelve compact discs, including Byzantium 330–1453 (the official companion CD to the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition). Forthcoming recordings include a disc of 15th-century Byzantine and Latin music from Cyprus.
Research Interests
Music and Liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church, especially Byzantine chant; Music and Identity in contemporary Eastern Europe and the Balkans; Diaspora Studies; Modern Greek Song; Music and Liturgy; Philosophies and Theologies of Music; Performance Practice.
Research and Publications
Byzantium in Rome: Medieval Byzantine Chant from Grottaferrata, Cappella Romana (Cappella Romana 403-2CD, 2007).
‘How Musical was the “Sung Office”'? Some Observations on the Ethos of the Byzantine Cathedral Rite’, in Ivan Moody and Maria Takala-Rozsczenko, eds., The Traditions of Orthodox Music. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Orthodox Church Music, University of Joensuu, Finland 13–19 June 2005 (Joensuu, 2007), 217–34.
‘Medieval Byzantine Chant and the Sound of Orthodoxy’, in Andrew Louth and Augustine Casiday, eds., Byzantine Orthodoxies, Papers from the 36th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), 131–50.
'Tradition and Renewal in Greek Orthodox Psalmody', in H.W. Attridge and M.E. Fassler, eds., The Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical and Artistic Traditions (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 341–56 [hardcover edition also available from Brill].
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