Originally founded as a musical club to improve sight-singing, Capella Duriensis is now enjoying a growing reputation as international ‘ambassadors’ of Portuguese sacred music.

Capella Duriensis’ unique concert programmes blend and contrast renaissance ‘a cappella’ works with medieval organum, folksongs from East and West Europe, religious music of the Eastern Orthodox church and 20th/21st century compositions. Their recent CD O Rito Bracarense(The Rite of Braga), researched and transcribed manuscripts from archives in Braga and now forms the basis of the Euroradio Early Music Series: Music of the Medieval Rites.

Since 2010, Capella Duriensis have been promoting Portuguese musical culture through deeply enriching performances in monasteries and monuments throughout Portugal. Within their first twelve months, the ensemble received invitations to festivals in Leiria, Alcobaça, Azores Islands and Lisbon. Following a tour to the Cathedrals of Wells and Bristol, UK in 2012, Capella Duriensis were described as wonderful ambassadors of Portuguese music. This year, 2014 the ensemble toured to the West Country of England, performing concerts in Truro Cathedral and St. German’s Abbey. Future engagements will be in London (St. George’s Hanover Square) and the Netherlands – following an invitation to the fringe series of the international Oude Muziek Festival, Utrecht.

Portuguese vocal masterpieces of the 16th and 17th Centuries

The ensemble have recently signed a contract with the NAXOS label to record a series of Cds entitled ‘Portuguese vocal masterpieces of the 16th and 17th Centuries’. The initial series of three CDs brings before the public many previously unrecorded works, both sacred and secular, creating a musical picture of Portugal during the richest years of it’s musical history.

EBU Early Music Series: Música dos Ritos Medievais

The ensemble also broadcast regularly with RDP Antena 2, (Portugal’s classical radio station) who have regularly selected Capella Duriensis to represent Portugal in many special events of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In 2014, Capella Duriensis created a project Music of the Medieval Rites for the Euroradio Early Music Series (see www.EBU.ch). This series broadcast six concerts dedicated to the music of celebrated early christian rites: Sarum, Byzantine, Ambrosian, Old Roman, Braga and Gallic. Each concert was performed by European vocal ensembles – Sospiri of Oxford, The Orthodox Choir of the University of Eastern Finland, Gregoriana of Slovakia, L’Académie Vocale de Paris and the monks of the Abbey of Solemnes.