Portland-based vocal ensemble Cappella Romana creates otherworldly mystic sounds with layers of harmony, plumbing that space where eastern and western sacred music meet. While most of their repertory involves the old world, occasionally they love to inject a little new music. One composer in particular embodies their approach to choral music—Arvo Pärt.

Cappella Romana has organized a festival of Pärt’s music, the first in the US, Feb. 5–12. Joining with Third Angle New Music Ensemble and other musicians, they will offer eight live chamber performances, documentary film screenings, and lectures interpreting the groundbreaking composer.

Pärt is the world’s most performed composer alive today. Growing up in Soviet-era Estonia, Pärt was considered a rebel in the world of composition. His early compositions broke both compositional and political rules in a very tense historical moment; some were even rejected for incorporating western techniques.

“He spoke with musically — such a directness and a simplicity and a sense of timelessness and calm,” says Alexander Lingas, the musical director and founder of Cappella Romana. “I’d just come off an undergraduate degree in composition…and here was someone speaking in the most straightforward language rooted in ancient things, but yet thoroughly contemporary.”