Sistine Chapel Choir - Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina

Gregorian chant:

Victimae paschali laudes (Sequence for Easter)

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594):

Nigra sum - 5 v.

Veni dilecte mi - 5 v.

Giuseppe Liberto (1943):

O vos omnes - 4 v.

Lorenzo Perosi (1872-1956):

Pater noster - 4 v.

Gregorian chant:

Factus est repente (Communion antiphon for Pentecost Sunday)

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611):

Ave Regina caelorum - 5 v.

Lorenzo Perosi:

Oremus pro Pontifice - 5 v.

Giuseppe Liberto:

Alma Redemptoris Mater - 4 v.

Domenico Bartolucci (1917-2023):

Exsultate iusti - 5 v.

O sacrum convivium - 4 v.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina:

Credo of the Missa Papae Marcelli - 6 v.

SISTINE PONTIFICAL CHAPEL CHOIR - VATICAN CITY

With its 1500 years of history, the Papal Choir is today the oldest in the world still in business. Over the centuries it has known different formations, according to the type of repertoire it had to perform.

An important period of its history begins with the Renaissance, during which the "College of Chaplains Cantori" (as the Choir was then called), now also expert in the execution of sacred polyphony, found its "natural theater": the Chapel Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, built by Pope Sixtus IV, Francesco della Rovere, starting in 1475.

Sixtus IV would ultimately give a great boost to the Pontifical Choir and since then, in homage to this Pope patron and in reference to the place where he exercised his ministry, the Choir will also be known as the "Sistine Musical Chapel" or "Sistine Chapel Choir".

The Pontifical Music Chapel, which had among its members some of the most famous musicians from all over Europe, such as Guillaume Dufay, Josquin Desprez, Cristóbal de Morales, Jacob Arcadelt, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Gregorio Allegri, still maintains its original mission today : the musical service in the liturgical celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Currently the Choir is made up of 24 adult Cantors and about 30 child Cantors, the Pueri Cantores, who make up the section of "white voices", and it lends its liturgical service mostly in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The Chapel is included in the Supreme Pontiff's Office of Liturgical Celebrations as a specific place of service to papal liturgical functions and its Head is the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations.

In carrying out its ministry, the Chapel always has before its eyes the dictates of the Second Vatican Council:

«The treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care.»

«The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services. But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action (…).»

«Bishops and other pastors of souls must be at pains to ensure that, whenever the sacred action is to be celebrated with song, the whole body of the faithful may be able to contribute that active participation which is rightly theirs. » (cf. Second Vatican Council Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, nos. 114, 116).

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MICHELE MARINELLI - Choirmaster of the boys choristers

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MARCOS PAVAN - Conductor

Mons. Marcos Pavan was born in 1962 in São Paulo, Brazil, where he completed his musical studies, specializing later in vocal technique with Leila Farah (São Paulo) and Franco Iglesias (New York), and in Gregorian chant with Leonor F. Dewey (São Paulo) and Eugène Cardine (Solesmes, France). He obtained the Fellowship Diploma in Choral Conducting from the National College of Music and Arts in London. In Brazil, he was an opera singer and director of various choral ensembles, with numerous radio and television recordings to his credit.

Moving to Italy in 1991, he continued his artistic activity by participating as a soloist in opera and sacred music productions recorded by Rai and the record labels San Paolo Multimedia, Paulus, Bongiovanni, and Sony.  

In 1993, he began collaborating as a liturgical singer with the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations. Ordained a priest in 1996, he was appointed Choirmaster of the Boys Choristers of the Pontifical Musical Chapel in 1998; in this role, he participated in recordings made by the Pontifical Choir for the record labels Paulus and Deutsche Grammophone.

In 2020, Pope Francis appointed him Choirmaster of the Pontifical Musical Chapel. Since then, he has undertaken with the Papal Choir various tours in Italy and abroad and has recorded a commemorative CD for the BAM record label marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lorenzo Perosi.

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