Caravaggio’s Journey

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 local ensembles focussing on the interpretation of high vocal polyphony, especially from Italian, Flemish, and English Renaissance. The ensemble is an artistic guarantor of the concert cycle Lenten Fridays which aims to revive the historical tradition of musical performances held at the Monastery of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star.

The members of the ensemble are internationally renowned vocal artists who regularly collaborate also with ensemble Collegium Marianum and are frequent guests at some of the foremost European and world music scenes (e.g. Oude Muziek Utrecht, MAfestival Bruges, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Bachfest Leipzig, Prague Spring, and Mitte Europa). They specialize in the interpretation of baroque and pre-romantic music and have appeared in concert venues in the Czech Republic and abroad with ensembles such as Bach Collegium Japan, Collegium Vocale Gent, Vox Luminis, Huelgas Ensemble, or Tiburtina Ensemble.

In 2012 the ensemble published its first CD, Sacrum et Profanum. In 2014 Cappella Mariana participated in the celebrations of the Year of Czech Music, publishing second CD Praga Magna with repertory of the court of Rudolf II, performing at the important European festivals and recording its concert performances for the Czech Radio.

Nowadays the ensemble is regular guest of festivals like Oude Muziek Utrecht, Laus Polyphoniae Antwerp, Arte Sacro Madrid and is preparing new CD discovering important bohemian manuscript Codex Specialnik.

The ensemble works under the artistic direction of Vojtěch Semerád, a graduate of Charles University, Prague, and Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris who further pursues his interest in vocal polyphony and researches in the area of 15^th– and 16^th-century music of Central-European provenience.

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 Galatea, 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.