Reviews

Frank La Rocca: Mass of the Americas

HRAudio.net

Its beauty is impressively powerful… Frank La Rocca’s Mass of the Americas is as timeless as it is timely - thus succeeding with flying colours in the commission - and Richard Sparks and Company are its truly authentic interpreters.
Heaven and Earth

Infodad

the smooth and assured delivery of Cappella Romana keeps the work meaningful and communicative throughout… Ikon of Light is majestic, generally slow-paced, pervaded by a contagious sense of calm that creates an experience of time expansion…
Robert Kyr: All-Night Vigil

Infodad

the warmth, depth and sincerity of the singing in Kyr’s All-Night Vigil transcend the unfamiliarity of the material. The vocal sound here is simply beautiful: there is a full hour of elegantly phrased, emotionally penetrating, deeply sincere delivery both of choral material and of individual lines against a choral background.
Heaven and Earth

Dagogo

There is such sonic beauty and musical complexity in every track that layers and layers of harmony just keep pouring out into the listening space… one listen to this disc and you will realize the spirituality in all of humanity.
Heaven and Earth

AllMusic

innovatively programmed… Cappella Romana is an exceptional choir, and here, the group has been ideally recorded in Portland, Oregon's St. Stephen Catholic Church. Strongly recommended. (Named an All Music Favorite Classical Vocal Release of 2022)
Robert Kyr: All-Night Vigil

Classical-Modern Music Review

sonorous drones, extended sustains, deeply full choral outlays and deeply meditative sobriety and jubilation… Bravo for the vocal excellence, the great audio and the finely crafted honing of the Modern in the Archaic.
Robert Kyr: All-Night Vigil

HRAudio.net

“In these testing times, music from heaven is more than welcome… what counts for us is the result as presented here: A brilliant statement of the ancient Eastern Orthodox Gospel in a modern setting.… once again the female and male voices of Cappella Romana are beyond reproach, taking the listener for just over an hour into another, mystic world.”
Frank La Rocca: Mass of the Americas

One Peter 5

“La Rocca has forged an individual and powerful style: emotionally compressed yet often quiet, restrained and then powerfully moving…look for it to become one of La Rocca’s most performed works…”
Frank La Rocca: Mass of the Americas

Pizzicato

“The music, in which the organ plays an important role, is quiet and contemplative throughout, and is atmospherically and reverently performed by the Ensemble Benedict XVI.”
Benedict Sheehan: Vespers

ConcertoNet

There seems to be no limit to his melodic and harmonic inventiveness and his ability to use music as a medium for expressing spirituality or, if you prefer, strong emotional feelings grounded in intelligence and tradition.
Benedict Sheehan: Vespers

Audiophile Audition

this is a marvelous, gorgeously rendered and profoundly personal expression of deep faith… I find this music glowing, inspiring and capable of great emotion and exultation, and one listens with rapt attention to its many marvels.
Benedict Sheehan: Vespers

HRAudio

this is choral singing at its most exquisite. The bottom line is that Benedict Sheehan has in all evidence succeeded in creating once more a fresh and vibrant view to Eastern Orthodox chant in all its glowing colours.
Benedict Sheehan: Vespers

AllMusic

There is a synergy between Sheehan and the singers of the kind that often comes with a sense of shared mission, and best of all is the sound from the Cappella Romana label… rich, clear, and multi-layered.
Benedict Sheehan: Vespers

Cinemusical

Sheehan’s Vespers is a beautiful work performed here by committed choristers bringing a sense of religious adoration that transports the listener.
Hymns of Kassianí

CD HotList

The performances were recorded in the wonderfully reverberant acoustic of the Madeleine Parish in Portland, Oregon, creating the perfect sonic atmosphere for this powerful and mystical music.
Hymns of Kassianí

HRAudio.net

The full mystic weight invades your spirit like being back in the Eastern Orthodox time. Proof of Cappella Romana’s authenticity? For me, no doubt.
Benedict Sheehan: Vespers

Blog Critics

Benedict Sheehan: Vespers is a rich treat for the ear and for the mind. I can’t recommend it highly enough for anyone with a love of choral music or an interest in liturgical music.
Hymns of Kassianí

Early Music America

melodies ebb and flow over a drone, the lines marked by subtle vocal shakes and scoops that give the music its distinctive sound.
Hymns of Kassianí

American Record Guide

This is one of the most significant recordings of medieval music to appear recently. I hope it will open both ears and minds to Kassia’s richly imaginative musical voice.
Hymns of Kassianí

Choir and Organ

“ celebrated with hugely impressive, authoritative scholarship and performance practice, sonorously glorious vocal colour, and pride by the male and female voices of Cappella Romana”