The Schola Gregoriana of Venice consists in musicians trained at the School of Prepoliphony at the Conservatory “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice under the direction of Lanfranco Menga, a former student of Dom Raffaele Baratta OSB, Giacomo Baroffio, and Andrea von Ramm. The main purpose of the Schola is to study the medieval monodic repertoire focussing mainly on liturgical music traditions of the Venetian area. The historical, liturgical, musical, and palaeographical implications are the subject of extensive study of the original sources, thus researching a rule of interpretation able of reconciling musicology with liturgical music as a form of vivid expression of the religious culture of the Christian West.
This vocation and the trends of execution have earned the Schola the Special Award in the Season of the Christian Monodic Chant in the frame of the International competition “Guido d’Arezzo” (August 2001). Immediately following is the recording debut with the CD “Resonet intonet” (Tactus 100005), sponsored by the Foundation “Ugo and Olga Levi” of Venice, which received broad appreciation among critics.
The Schola collaborates with the Ensemble Oktoechos, one of the most prestigious Italian vocal groups specialized in medieval music, with which it realised in 2004 the CD “Visitatio Sepulchri” (Tactus 100007), and in 2006 “Jubilemus exultantes” (Tactus 100008), and in 2007 “Crucem Tuam Adoramus” (Tactus 210001).
In 2002 the Schola toured in France, and achieved great success: the French press has defined it “l’un des meilleurs ensembles grégoriens de notre temps.” Among recent performances are the ones carried out in the following locations: the Abbey of Rosazzo, in the frame of the International Seminars directed by Nino Albarosa; the Church of the Hermits of Padua; the Castle Brandolini (Treviso) for the Foundation Levi of Venice; the Castle of Torrechiara and the Cathedral of Fidenza for the Season “Medioevo…e oltre” (middle Ages and beyond); Asiago Festival and Musical Autumn in Caserta Vecchia.
The Schola also participated in the liturgical drama “Visitatio Sepulchri”, “In die Annuntiationis”, and “In die Purificationis” on commission by the University of Padua and Fondazione Levi of Venice.
