A keyboard virtuoso and director of vocal ensembles, Iason Marmaras is a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the field of early music. Since 2016, he has founded and directed the Renaissance vocal ensemble Cappella Sancti Pauli in Athens. He explains why someone might be interested in participating and who it is aimed at.
Apply for auditions
https://www.scholacantorum.gr/auditions
Note: As Latin has cases (like Greek), the Latin terms appearing in the text are declined normally: in the genitive, Scholæ, Cappellæ, Collegij, Chori, and the accusative, Scholam, Cappellam, Collegium, Chorum.
What is Cappella Sancti Pauli?
Cappella Sancti Pauli is the Renaissance choir of Scholæ Cantorum Sancti Pauli, the St. Paul’s School of Singers, which I founded upon my return to Athens from the Netherlands in 2016. The main activity of Cappellæ Sancti Pauli is the monthly Renaissance Evensongs (Choral Evensong) at St. Paul’s Anglican Church. In its Evensongs, the Cappella sings music from Elizabethan England, written to be heard precisely in this context.
The Cantores, the professional sub-ensemble and, I would say, the heart of the Cappellæ, consist of its most experienced members. They set the pace in rehearsals and in every musical performance of the choir, and beyond the Evensongs with the Cappellam, they perform as an independent musical ensemble in concerts of Renaissance and Baroque music from all over Europe.
What motivated you to create them?
Schola Cantorum Sancti Pauli, as an organization, and Cappella, as its main musical ensemble, were founded with the aim of spreading Renaissance music and choral singing in general in the Greek music scene, based at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Athens.
After the success of our first Evensong in December 2016, we decided with the Anglican Church to continue on a monthly basis, and the other activities, concerts, and lessons of the Scholæ were organized around this.
The name Schola Cantorum Sancti Pauli derives from the term often used for vocal ensembles of medieval and Renaissance music, schola cantorum. The genitive Sancti Pauli, meaning of St. Paul, indicates the Scholæ’s connection with the eponymous Anglican Church of Athens. Cappella was originally the Latin name for the chapel where musical rehearsals took place in medieval churches, and by extension, any ecclesiastical musical ensemble in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
What are its main activities today?
The Schola organizes various activities, the main ones being the Cappella and the monthly Renaissance Evensongs. Its other activities include the amateur choir Chorus Scholasticus and the seminar course Collegium Sancti Pauli. The concerts organized by the Schola, with the Cantores and often with guest musicians from abroad, function as a parallel activity, interconnected and mutually supported by the Evensongs.
Through the Evensongs, the Schola Cantorum offers its choristers a deep insight into the music of Elizabethan England, and the Athenian audience the opportunity to come into contact with the origins of the rich British choral tradition, of which Evensong is the focal point.
Through the theoretical and practical seminars of the Collegij, and the musical performances of its ensembles, both in Evensongs and other religious ceremonies, as well as in concerts, the Schola Cantorum gives a platform to the vocal music of the Renaissance and Baroque, and the opportunity for everyone to experience it according to their abilities, as a listener, as a student, or as a singer.
You are approaching a decade of activity. What have you achieved during this time?
The Cappella and its professional sub-ensemble, the Cantores, have performed over 50 Anglican Evensongs at St. Paul’s. The monthly Renaissance Evensong has now been established as an institution, and the Anglican Church is always full, with some regular attendees and many new faces, who visit us either out of love for music or out of interest in the Anglican rite of the “Evening Prayer.”
At the same time, the Cantores, with the occasional reinforcement of the Cappellae, have sung several Latin Vespers at the Catholic Cathedral of St. Dionysius, as well as multiple concerts of early music at the most important festivals and venues in Greece, such as the GNO Sacred Music Festival, the Thessaloniki Baroque Festival, the GNO Alternative Stage, the Athens and Thessaloniki Concert Halls, etc.
What does a Renaissance Evensong consist of?
The service of Choral Evensong, or more accurately Choral Evening Prayer, resulted from the merger of the prayers of Vespers and Compline (in English Vespers and Compline) in the 16th century during the founding of the Anglican Church, and forms the core of the British choral tradition.
The Anglican Choral Evensong is a largely musical service. Its musical part consists of
A) Music for fixed texts (parts with the same text in every service):
The two Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (“Mag & Nunc”)
The two Sets of Versicles: Preces and Responses
B) Music for variable texts (parts with different text in each service):
The Psalm (Psalm), often in chordal recitation (the so-called “Anglican Chant”)
C) Optional parts with free text:
The Anthem before the final prayers
Often, the Introit at the beginning of the service
Rarely, a Hymn at the end of the service
The choice of music is free, and in the Cappellæ’s Evensongs, it is almost exclusively made from works by British composers of the first century of the Anglican Church (1550-1650), such as Thomas Tallis, Nicholas Strogers, John Mundy, William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins, Thomas Weelkes, Orlando Gibbons, etc. For the optional parts, works by continental composers of the era, such as Orlando di Lasso, Heinrich Schütz, Tomás Luís de Victoria, Pierluigi Palestrina, and even earlier works, are also chosen.
At the same time, my own compositions in Renaissance or Baroque style are also sung during the Evensongs.
What is the significance of participating in this?
Participation in Cappellam Sancti Pauli offers its choristers a unique opportunity to develop both their tonal and rhythmic precision and their expressive palette. Particular emphasis is placed on clear articulation of both vowels and consonants, primarily in the English language, as well as on text expression, balance between voices, natural intonation, consonance and dissonance relationships, and the rhetorical structure of speech and music.
The regularity of the Evensongs also provides an opportunity for frequent exposure to performing in front of an audience (or, in this case, a congregation), and can thus help with musical and “stage” readiness.
Who is it for, amateurs or professionals?
The Cappella is aimed at professional singers as well as capable amateurs, as the skills it requires and develops are often far from the core of a soloist’s musical education. Singers of “non-classical” genres, musicologists, instrumentalists, and even actors with excellent musical foundations, together with young soloists and experienced professional choristers, form the core of the ensemble.
For a more relaxed engagement with Renaissance music and choral singing, there is also the Chorus Scholasticus, the Scholae’s amateur choir, which occasionally participates in Evensongs and has slower repertoire learning paces and less demanding musical requirements for its members.
What obligations does it entail?
The Cappella holds regular weekly rehearsals under the direction of its Assistant Music Director, architect and pianist Ilias Vlastos, and sings the monthly Renaissance Evensongs at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, while occasionally participating in concerts of broader early music repertoire.
What are the prerequisites for participation?
It requires either excellent sight-reading or diligent study of the repertoire, as well as attention to detail. Above all, a clear voice and an open mind are needed.
What does this year’s program promise?
In 2025-26, as every year, the Cappella will sing a Renaissance Evensong each month at St. Paul’s Anglican Church (The Cappella takes a break in the summer). Also, the Cappella plans, in addition to its monthly Evensongs, to begin a series of recordings of works from its repertoire, including works by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins, etc.
