La Confessione (1838) by Giuseppe Molteni.  Cariplo Collection, Gallerie di Piazza Scala, Milan.

Sunday March 15, 2026 at 4 P. M.

St. Mark Church
2200 San Joaquin Hills Road
Newport Beach CA 92660

La Morte del Cor penitente is one of three surviving oratorios by Giovanni Legrenzi, composed around the Year 1671 when he was the leading opera composer in Venice. This remarkable oratorio tells the story of a tormented Sinner, who must choose between saving his life or saving his soul. Ultimately, allegories of Repentance and Hope gently persuade him that in order to truly live, he must embrace death.

Italia und Germaina by Friedrich Overbech, symbolizing the 19th-century German fascination with all things Italian and –– by extension –– Catholic.

Concert
Sunday September 14, 2025 at 2 P. M.

Santa Monica Bay Woman’s Club
1210 Fourth Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401

The Year 2025 marks 500 years since the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who is considered the first truly great composer.  Unlike Bach, Palestrina’s works have been performed consistently ever since he was alive.  Palestrina worked closely with the popes in Rome, and the implementation of his musical reforms changed the course of music history forever. 

Humanists during the Renaissance perceived several flaws in the way that music was composed during the sixteenth century (for instance, long melismatic passages on weak syllables, as well musical phrases that seemingly failed to adequately emphasize the rhetorical imagery of the words), which were corrected by Palestrina and his contemporaries, laying the foundation for the Baroque.  Palestrina’s style would reach legendary status during the seventeenth century, and it has been performed continuously over the past 450 years, inspiring countless revival movements ever since. 

To reflect Palestrina’s timeless legacy, we have programmed compositions that illustrate how the concept of Palestrina’s music evolved over the centuries: we begin with late 16th- and early 17th-century adaptations of Palestrina’s works for solo voice in a nascent baroque idiom, followed by compositions from the 18th & 19th centuries by German composers directly imitating Palestrina’s style, including a transcription of a Palestrina mass arranged by Bach himself.

Personnel

Graycen Gardener, soprano primo
Dr. Alexander Bonus, cornetto primo

Anna Schubert, soprano secondo
Dr. Carlo Benedetti, cornetto secondo

William Duffy & Nathaniel Decker, alto
Brad Close, alto sackbut

Dr. R. Matthew Brown, tenore primo
Nick Daley, tenor sackbut

Luc Kleiner, tenore secondo
Eric Schmalz, tenor sackbut

John Buffett, basso
Noah Gladstone, bass sackbut

Continuo:

Gabriel Golden, violone
Cono “Richard” Savino, theorbo
Sean Maxwell, organo

Bryan Roach, maestro di capella

Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 2 P. M.

St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church
2200 San Joaquin Hills Road
Newport Beach, CA 92660

The music archive at Kremsmünster Abbey, one of the most valuable collections of baroque sacred music in the world.

Free liturgical performance
Sunday June 15, 2025 at 1 P. M.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux parish
1100 E Alhambra Road
Alhambra, CA 91801

Personnel

MaryRuth Miller & Anselm Decker, cantus
Dr. Kiri Tollaksen, cornetto

Hannah Little & Nathaniel Decker, cantus secundus
Carrie Holzman Little, viola da braccio

Dr. Matthew Tresler, altus
Spencer Schaffer, tenor sackbut

Dr. Jon Lee Keenan, tenor secundus
Noah Gladstone, tenor sackbut

Gregory Billion, tenor
Brad Close, tenor sackbut

Scott Graff, bassus
Dr. Jonthan Stehney, dulcian

Alejandro Acosta, archlute
Matthew Xie, theorbo

Sean Maxwell, organ

Bryan Roach, director

The Year 2025 marks 500 years since the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who is arguably the single most influential composer of all time.  Palestrina worked closely with the popes in Rome, and almost singlehandedly determined the sound of Catholicism.  The implementation of his musical reforms changed the course of music history forever.

Humanists during the Renaissance perceived several flaws in the way that music was composed during the sixteenth century (for instance, long melismatic passages on weak syllables, as well musical phrases that seemingly failed to adequately emphasize the rhetorical imagery of the words), which were corrected by Palestrina and his contemporaries, laying the foundation for the Baroque.  Palestrina’s style would reach legendary status during the baroque era, and it has been performed continuously over the past 450 years, inspiring countless revival movements ever since. 

To reflect the timelessness of Palestrina’s music, we have included 17th-century arrangements of Palestrina’s works for solo voice in a baroque idiom, as well as later compositions from the 18th and 19th centuries directly inspired by Palestrina’s style: all this in addition to featuring Palestrina’s immortal compositions performed in the manner that they would have been encountered during the 16th century.

Musica Transalpina is proud to present the first known American performance of Emperor Leopold’s Missa pro defunctis, which he composed for the death of the Empress Margaret Theresa in 1673.  The marriage between the Infanta Margaret Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. was one of the most important dynastic alliances in history, so her untimely death was of immense historical significance, ultimately leading to the extinction of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg.  It was also personally devastating to the Emperor.  We are recreating the music that accompanied this historic event, and now you get to hear it.

Concert performance:

Sunday April 6, 2025 at 7:30 PM

The Parish Church of St. Andrew
311 North Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91103

In a rapidly modernizing world marked by conflict, Jacobus de Kerle masterfully weaves the ethereal votive antiphon Da pacem, Domine into a magnificent cantus firmus mass as a cry for peace. Possibly written as a commemoration of the epic sea victory at Lepanto in 1571, this work was lavishly published in 1583 by the legendary press of Christophe Plantin, the most prestigious publishing house in history.

We are proud to present first complete performance of this glorious Mass setting in modern times, sung for the first time in America. We hope that you will find its soaring melodies & noble harmonic language a moving call to peace in your own heart.

Free liturgical performance

Sunday December 1, 2024 at 9 A. M.
The parish church of Ss. Peter & Paul
515 West Opp Street
Wilmington, CA 90744.

Join Musica Transalpina as we present Heinrich Biber’s rarely-heard Requiem in A Major for All Souls’ Day: Saturday November 2, 2024 at 11 A. M. and Sunday November 3, 2024 at 7 P. M.

Concert performance
Sunday November 3, 2024 at 7 P. M.
The church of the Blessed Sacrament
6657 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028.

The Return of the Bucentaur to the Molo on Ascension Day by Canaletto

Ascension was one of the most important holidays during the golden age of Venice, when the Doge would officially consecrate Venice to the sea by throwing a wedding ring into the lagoon. This ceremony was followed by solemn liturgical celebrations at the abbey church of San Nicolò la Lido with elaborate musical accompaniment, and it was concluded with a huge fair in S. Mark’s Square that was famous throughout Europe for its splendor & opulence.

Musica Transalpina seeks to recreate the Mass as it could have been celebrated on Ascension for the Doge and his court on Saturday May 11, 2024 at 7 P. M.  We are proud to present enormous polychoral works from Venice written at the dawn of the Baroque, including Giovanni Gabrieli’s Omnes gentes à 16. (published in 1597), one of the earliest extant works written for four separate choirs.  Alongside this masterpiece, we are presenting Giovanni Croce’s equally large Missa à 16. super Iubilate Deo, apparently written at the request of Archduke Ferdinand (future Emperor Ferdinand II.) who met Croce while at Venice in 1598.  This enormous mass setting survives in manuscript form in the Graz Chorbuch, and is receiving its American première – and quite possibly its very first modern performance anywhere – by our Ensemble on Saturday May 11 at the parish church of S. Vincent de Paul:

621 West Adams Boulevard,
Los Angeles, CA 90007.

While this event is free of charge & open to the public, we encourage our patrons to donate in increments of $20 ($40, $60, &c.).  You are also welcome to wait until the conclusion of our performance and drop your donation off on your way out!  Please reserve your spot at whatever price works for you at the following link: