For promoters

...fantastic clear tone and a glowing, warm choral sound...

Frits van der Waa

Volkskrant (NL), 2019

…an outstanding performance by the Cappella Mariana!

Johan van Veen

Musica dei donum (NL), 2018

Cappella Mariana achieves a smoother, purely beautiful tone.

Len Mullenger

MusicWeb International (UK), 2018

Das geschieht mit leichter Hand und einer entwaffnenden Perfektion.

Stephan Schmidt

Toccata-Alte Musik aktuell (DE), 2015

Cappella Mariana is a vocal ensemble specializing in medieval and Renaissance polyphony and the vocal repertoire of Early Baroque. The performances of Capella Mariana have met with enthusiastic reception from the public and critics alike, the latter highlighting the ensemble’s expressive performance based on close attention paid to the text. Cappella Mariana was founded in 2008 as one of the few Czech ensembles focussing on the interpretation of high vocal polyphony, especially from Italian, Flemish, and English Renaissance.

The ensemble works under the artistic direction of Vojtěch Semerád. The members of the ensemble are internationally renowned vocal artists who also specialize in the interpretation of Baroque and pre-Romantic music. The ensemble regularly performs at music festivals and on prestigious stages both in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, including Oude Muziek Utrecht, MAfestival Brugge, Voices of Passion Leuven, Laus Polyphoniae Antwerpen, Klangvokal Dortmund, Prague Spring Festival, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alte Musik, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, St. Wenceslas Music Festival, and Concentus Moraviae. In 2014, Cappella Mariana made a significant contribution to the celebrations of the Czech Year of Music.

In 2021, the ensemble debuted at the Prague Spring Festival with a unique programme “Kryštof Harant – Journey to the Holy Land” together with the Constantinople ensemble. With this project the ensemble embarked on its first overseas tour to Canada in December 2022.

In 2021, the ensemble was in residence at the Alamire Foundation. Besides the concerts, an intensive lab session took place in the Library of Voices. This innovative and high-tech session in the Alamire Sound Lab focused on the relationship between the musical source, the performance and the historical spaces in which the polyphonic music, as notated in the source, originally sounded.

The ensemble’s discography for the Supraphon and Etcetera labels includes recordings with revelatory dramaturgy by unknown composers or compositions. The latest title, “Johannes Tourout – Portrait of an Imperial Chaplain”, is the first CD in the new Alamire Foundation Editions series, which brings together music by forgotten works by Franco-Flemish composers from the Central European region.

Vojtěch Semerád is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Pedagogy of Charles University in Prague (choirmastering) and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris (baroque violin with François Fernandez). He is a finalist of the Telemann-Wettbewerb International Competition in Magdeburg. He has been trained as a singer since 2010 throughout private lessons (with teachers such as Chantal Santon Jeffery, Peter Kooij, Poppy Holden) and masterclasses.
 
As a solo singer, Vojtěch Semerád is invited by renowned ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Ensemble Correspondances, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Vox Luminis or Huelgas Ensemble, with whom he performs at major international venues and festivals such as Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Park Avenue Armory New York, Logan Center Chicago, Concertgebouw Rotterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Palau de la Música Barcelona, etc. He has taken part in several opera productions, and has recently sung Histoires Sacrés by M.-A. Charpentier, the role of Acis in G. F. Handel's Acis and Galathea, the role of Atys in J. B. Lully's Atys and the role of Pythonisse in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas. He is regularly invited as the Evangelist in passions and oratorios by J. S. Bach.
 
Vojtěch Semerád is the artistic director of the vocal ensemble Cappella Mariana, with which he performs forgotten works of vocal polyphony of Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque era. Today the ensemble is regularly invited to the prestigious festivals a.o. Oude Muziek Utrecht, Laus Polyphoniae Antwerpen, Voices of Passion Leuven, MAfestival Brugge, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Innsbrucker Festwochen, Prague Spring and Concentus Moraviae.
 
He has recorded for Deutsche Gramophon, Naïve, Harmonia Mundi, Passacaille and Supraphon, in total more than 30 recordings, and also regularly records for Czech Radio.
 
Vojtěch Semerád is also a researcher, focusing on the discovery of 15th, 16th and 17th century vocal music in Central Europe.

Contact

Vojtěch Semerád

artistic director
tel.: +420 731 448 347
contact@cappellamariana.com

Jana Kralovic

Artevisio agency
tel.: +420 725 767 601
jana.kralovic@artevisio.cz

Paul de Kok

Toccata music management
for Benelux and Germany
tel.: +31 (0)6 81922722
paul@toccatamusic.nl