Cappella Gloriana, San Diego's premiere a cappella vocal ensemble, performs a cutting-edge mix of contemporary works and early-music classics in concerts that juxtapose Bach, Mozart, Handel, Tallis and Byrd with Britten, Messiaen, Poulenc, Copland and Tavener. Some of San Diego's most accomplished singers perform with Cappella Gloriana - singers who, as individuals, have performed and recorded with major opera companies, ensembles and orchestras throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe. In 2003, Cappella Gloriana traveled to Gehren, Germany to open the Johann Michael Bach-Tage, an international music festival in the hometown of this famous ancestor of J.S. Bach. Cappella Gloriana (named after an allegorical title of England's Queen Elizabeth I) was founded in 1996 by co-directors Virginia Sublett and Stephen Sturk.