St. Paul's Within the Walls

Holy Eucharist in Spanish
2023-01-01 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Rome)
The Latinamerican community meets each Sunday at 12pm to celebrate Holy Eucharist in Spanish. We follow Rite II of the Libro de Oración Común, in the tradition of the Episcopal Church. Coffee and cornetti are available in the garden before and after the service. All are welcome!

Holy Eucharist
2023-01-01 10:30 - 11:30
Join us for Holy Eucharist at 10:30 am (CET) on Sundays at St. Paul’s. We follow Rite II from The Book of Common Prayer, in the Episcopal Church tradition, with hymns, readings, prayers and sermon.
After the Eucharist you are invited to stay for coffee. On most Sundays we offer the opportunity to join us for lunch at a local hotel. See you there!

Luminaria: Stefano Vasselli, Organ
2023-11-05 18:30 - 20:00 | St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Via Nazionale 16a, Rome
Stefano Vasselli, Organ
Johann Sebastian Bach
Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major BWV 564
Chorale – Partita “Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig” BWV 768
Pièce d’orgue BWV 575
Passacaglia and Thema Fugatum BWV 582
A program entirely dedicated to a single composer always poses particular difficulties, however, the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the very variety of his compositions easily supports a monographic concert. The choice fell on four pieces written in different eras, the result of the evolution of Bach’s thought which, with its unmistakable personality, was able to make the stylistic influences of other musical schools its own. The program opens with the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, a tripartite piece in the manner of the instrumental concert. The toccata opens with large virtuosic cadences for both the manual and the pedal, and then gives way to an elegant and light-filled contrapuntal writing. The Toccata is followed by an Adagio in A minor, the cantability of which immediately brings to mind the Italian style of Vivaldi and Corelli. After a polyphonic passage with rich and sonorous harmonies, the fugue begins, based on a theme in 6/8 with a dancing and joyful character and developed lightly, without resorting to overly erudite contrapuntal devices. The 11 Partitas (= variations) on the chorale “Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig”, were probably written in 1706 in Lüneburg, by a Johann Sebastian in his early twenties. Although simple in structure, they show a depth of expression that is already mature and full of nuances, further underlined by the refined timbral research that differentiates each variation. The “pièce d’orgue” as the title says, is a particular piece, of French taste, that the young Bach (about twenty-five years old) wrote during his years of training and exploration of the musical taste of his contemporaries. A short toccata page (très vitement) and an equally short chromatic coda (lentement) frame a grandiose “tutti” (gravement) of the organ, solemn and majestic, in the French manner of the “grand plein jeux” of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, the Passacaglia is one of those pieces that Bach seems to have written more for himself than for some contingent occasion: the composition is generally dated between 1706 and 1713, and its first instrumental destination is the harpsichord with pedal. It is a series of 21 variations on a solemn dance theme in 3/4 time. The variations seem to arise from each other more as a continuous development rather than a play of writing or timbres. At the end of the variations, a grandiose double fugue further elaborates the material until the piece concludes with understated grandeur. Over the centuries, the passacaglia has found its performance space on the organ, sometimes enduring excessive timbral or interpretative elaborations, due, in any case, to the extreme richness of musical and, we could say, spiritual contents, contents to which no subsequent composer is could have remained insensitive. To entice you, here is a (not short) recording of “Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig” taken from a concert a few years ago…

Wednesday Within the Walls
2023-11-08 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for a quiet evening of prayer and reflection. We begin at 7pm with evening prayers on the Second Floor of Via Napoli 58, followed by a simple supper, which we eat while listening to spiritual readings. Afterwards there is time to share reflections or just chat. This is an excellent opportunity to introduce your friends to a Christian environment outside the formal setting of the Eucharist.
Wednesday Within the Walls takes place every Wednesday except the first week of the month. The event is multilingual, and everyone is welcome.

Luminaria: Fiori Muiscali
2023-11-12 18:30 - 20:00 | St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Via Nazionale 16a, Rome
Fiori Musicali: In Memory of Mario D’Agosto
Marco Lo Muscio, Organ
Tullio Forlenza, Piano
Damiano Rosa e Flavio Nati, Guitar
Ensemble “Antiquaviva” (Andrea Manchée, Voice; Rosario Cicero, Baroque Guitar; Alessandro de Pau, Renaissance Lute; Cristina Ternovec, Viola da Gamba; Sandro Pippa, Percussioni)
Music by Marco Lo Muscio, Bela Bartòk, Mauro Giuliani, Ferdinando Carulli, Baroque airs and dances.

The Refugee Ocean
2023-11-16 19:00 - 20:30
Come and join friends around the world as we meet online for the monthly St. Paul’s Book Club! November’s book is The Refugee Ocean by Pauls Toutonghi.
Two refugees find that their lives are inextricably linked—over time and distance—by the perils of history and a single haunting piece of music.
Born in Beirut in 1922, Marguerite Toutoungi lives a life of loss and sacrifice. She dreams of traveling to Europe and studying music at the Conservatoire de Paris but her family—and her society—hold her back. When she meets the son of a Cuban tobacco farmer at a formal dance, love transforms her life. Together with him, she flees across the Pacific Ocean. She’s hoping for a new beginning. Instead, she finds revolution and chaos.
Over fifty years later, Naïm Rahil is a teenage refugee from Aleppo, Syria. A former piano prodigy who struggles to thrive in America—and who has lost part of his hand in the war—he dreams of a simple, normal life.
Moving from Aleppo on the brink of civil war, to Lebanon in the late 1940s, to Havana during the Cuban Revolution, to the suburbs of Washington, DC, The Refugee Ocean grapples with what it means to be an immigrant, shows how wounds can heal, and highlights the role of music and art in the resilience of the human spirit. (Goodreads)
Click here to join the meeting.

Luminaria: Orchestra Giovani Musici di Roma
2023-11-19 18:30 - 20:00 | St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Via Nazionale 16a, Rome
Francesco Malatesta, Violin
Alessio Pacchiarotti, Organ
Orchestra Giovani Musici di Roma
Rocco Sbardella, Conductor
G. F. Haendel: Organ Concerto in B flat Maj. Op.4 N.6
J. S. Bach: Violin Concerto in a min. BWV 1041
F. J. Haydn/L.Mozart: Toy Symphony
W. A. Mozart: Sinfonia N. 29 in A Maj. K 201

Thanksgiving Dinner
2023-11-22 19:00 - 22:00
All are welcome to join us at 7pm on Wendesday 22 November in the Crypt (entrance through the Church garden, corner of Via Napoli and Via Nazionale) for a traditional (and non!) Thanksgiving Dinner. We will provide the turkey, and we invite you to bring side dishes (perhaps something from your own cultural tradition), desserts or drinks to share.
Please sign up on Eventbrite so we know how many to prepare for!

Luminaria: Vox Dilecti Mei
2023-11-26 18:30 - 20:00 | St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Via Nazionale 16a, Rome
Vox dilecti mei – Sacred music by female composers
Eleonora Aleotti, Soprano
Sabina Gagliardi, Alto
Stefania Grillo, Viola da Gamba
Silvia Trovatelli, Organ
Simone Colavecchi, Theorbo
Conductor and arranger: Remo Guerrini

Luminaria: Livia Mazzanti, Organ
2023-12-03 18:30 - 20:00 | St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Via Nazionale 16a, Rome
About Oscar Wilde
Livia Mazzanti, Organ
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Fryderyk Chopin, Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, and Improvisations.

Luminaria: Una Speme Lusinghiera
2023-12-10 18:30 - 20:00 | St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Via Nazionale 16a, Rome
Una Speme Lusinghiera
Andrea Manchée Soprano
Francesco Taranto 19th Century Guitar
Music by Mauro Giuliani, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Nicolini and Gioachino Rossini.

Advent Festival of Lessons and Carols
2023-12-13 18:00 - 19:00 | St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Via Nazionale 16a, Rome
Join us for our traditional celebration of Lessons and Carols for the season of Advent. Music will be provided by St. Paul’s Choir with organist Stefano Vasselli.
