October 14-16, 2021

The Church Music Association of America is proud to invite you to join us in our Fall Virtual Sacred Music Workshop:

This Fall Workshop will be primarily focused on instruction in topics related to chant and the Catholic sacred music tradition, lectures and daily night prayer. During the three days, you’ll be able to participate in all these sessions via your home computer using the Zoom app. At the end of each breakout session there will be a short question-and-answer session. Sessions will be recorded and made available to participants to view immediately following the sessions.

Highlights

  • Saturday Morning Mass for the intentions of our generous donors
  • Daily Breakout sessions on a variety of topics:
    • The Fundamental Trajectory of Aesthetic Education
    • Modern Questions about Beauty in the Music of Evangelization: St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuit Way of Proceeding
    • The Necessity of Beauty in the Liturgy (Spanish)
    • Gems of the Polyphonic Repertoire that a Parish Choir Can Sing Beautifully
    • Beautiful Sacred Music in the Context of a Spanish-Language Liturgy (Spanish)
    • The Beauty of Children’s Voices and Beauty in Sacred Music Education Programs for Young Singers
    • What Makes Chant Beautiful
    • and more
  • Daily Spiritual Reflections provided by our chaplain Rev. Robert Pasley.
  • Night Prayer (Compline)
  • Questions and Answer sessions after each Breakout

General Registration Information

Credit card or PayPal payment must accompany registration. You may register online at the CMAA Shop website: ONLINE REGISTRATION

Download our Attendee Guide: ATTENDEE GUIDE

Schedule

Thursday, October 14
  • 4:30 pm (ET) Welcome and Spiritual Reflection – Rev. Robert Pasley
  • 5:10 pm – 6:25 pm (ET) The Beauty of Hymnody in the Liturgy of the Hours as a vehicle for Evangelization – Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, Exec. Director of ICEL (English) (1 hour)
  • 6:45 pm – 8:00 pm (ET)  The Fundamental Trajectory of Aesthetic Education – Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka (English) (1 hour)
  • 8:20 pm – 9:35 pm (ET)  Beauty and New Compositions – David Hughes (1 hour)
  • 9:55 pm (ET) Night Prayer
Friday, October 15
  • 4:30 pm (ET) Spiritual Reflection, Rev. Robert Pasley
  • 5:10 pm – 6:25 pm (ET) Modern Questions about Beauty in the Music of Evangelization: St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuit Way of Proceeding – Lisa Knutson (English) (1 hour)
  • 5:10 pm – 6:25 pm (ET) Achieving a Beautiful Tone when Singing Gregorian or Spanish-Language Chant – Gustavo Zayas (Spanish)
  • 6:45: pm – 8:00 pm (ET) Gems of the Polyphonic Repertoire that a Parish Choir Can Sing Beautifully – Dr. Horst Buchholz (English) (1 hour)
  • 6:45: pm – 8:00 pm (ET) The necessity of Beauty in the Liturgy (Spanish) – Fr. Rhodes Bolster (Spanish)
  • 8:20 pm – 9:35 pm (ET) The Beauty of Children’s Voices and Beauty in Sacred Music Education Programs for Young Singers – Mary Ann Carr Wilson (English) (1 hour)
  • 8:20 pm – 9:35 pm (ET) Beautiful Sacred Music in the Context of a Spanish-Language Liturgy(Spanish) – Jose Ballon (Spanish)
  • 9:55 pm (ET) Night Prayer (Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Lancaster County, NE, Nicholas Lemme, director)
Saturday, October 16
  • 10:00 am (ET) Holy Mass – Votive Mass of St. Joseph (EF), celebrated by Rev. Robert Pasley, live-streamed from Mater Ecclesiae Parish, Berlin, NJ; offered for the intentions of CMAA donors. Music to be provided by Lisa and Nathan Knutson.
    A booklet (PDF file) for the Mass will be available for download.
    CMAA YOUTUBE CHANNEL
  • MATER ECCLESIAE CHAPEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL (Alternate live stream channel)
  • 1:15 pm – 2:30 pm (ET) Achieving Beautiful Choral Tone – Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam (1 hour)
  • 2:50 pm – 4:05 pm (ET) Beauty and Education – Dr. Sebastian Morello (English) (1 hour)
  • 4:25 pm – 5:40 pm (ET) What Makes Chant Beautiful – Dr. William Mahrt (1 hour)
  • 6:00 pm (ET) Night Prayer (St. John the Evangelist Parish, Stamford, CT, Nicholas Botkins, choirmaster)

Printable SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 

Faculty

Jose Ballon

Jose Ballon Vasquez will present a breakout session in Spanish: Beautiful Sacred Music in the Context of a Spanish-Language Liturgy, in Spanish. Jose Ballon Vasquez serves as the Choirmaster for the Traditional Latin Mass Community of Miami Florida, where he established the Schola Miamiensis. A graduate of Florida International University with a B.M. in Music Education, his main focus of study has been sacred music and popular music.

In 2013, Jose started out as a singer for the Schola Cantorum of St. Francis and St. Clare under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Donelson–Nowicka, where he received an immersive experience into Gregorian Chant and other Catholic Sacred Music. During his time at Florida International University, he studied choral conducting under Dr. Kathryn Longo, and jazz voice under Dr. Lisanne Lyons. Jose has also performed with the Miami Collegium Musicum under the direction of Dr. Donald Oglesby, and the Choir of the Cathedral of St. Mary under the direction of Mr. Gustavo Zayas.

In 2016 he established a second Schola Cantorum at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, where they sing for a Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form every month. In 2020, he had the honor of participating as a moderator in the Virtual Sacred Music Colloquium organized by the Church Music Association of America. He has also served as a presenter for the 2020 Sacred Music Boot Camp, as well as the 2021 Sacred Music Colloquium (both virtual events). He currently lives in Miami, Florida with his family.

Rev. Rhodes Bolster

Fr. Rhodes Bolster will offer a breakout session in Spanish entitled: The Necessity of Beauty in the Liturgy.

Father Rhodes Bolster is a Nashville native, the son of a cradle Catholic and a convert. In high school he was involved in music and theater, then began discerning a vocation to the priesthood. 

After one year at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, Fr. Bolster entered the seminary at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. From there he went to Rome to study theology. He holds a License in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, specializing in Liturgical Theology. On May 25, 2019, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Nashville.

Fr. Bolster serves as Associate Pastor of St. Philip Catholic Church in Franklin, TN and as a Master of Ceremonies for the bishop.

Dr. Horst Buchholz

Dr. Horst Buchholz, Vice President of the Church Music Association of America, will present a breakout session on Gems of the Polyphonic Repertoire that a Parish Choir Can Sing Beautifully.

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Horst Buchholz is Director of Sacred Music at the Archdiocese of Detroit and the  Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, MI. He previously served as Director of Sacred Music at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and the Archdiocese of St. Louis, as well as Artistic Director of ProArte Saint Louis. Prior to St. Louis, Dr. Buchholz had served as Organist and Choirmaster at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Colorado and Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland.

Buchholz studied organ and sacred music in his native Germany at the Berlin College of Church Music and graduated with degrees and diplomas in Church Music and Music Pedagogy from the University of Arts in Berlin. His organ teachers have included Heinz Lohmann, Peter Wackwitz, and Rudolf Heinemann. Among his conducting teachers were Martin Behrmann, Uwe Gronostay, and Erich Bergel. After receiving his teaching certificate in Music Theory and Composition from the University of Arts in Berlin in 1989, Dr. Buchholz continued his post-graduate studies in the United States, where he received his Doctor of Music degree in conducting from the Indiana University School of Music.

As a chorus member and assistant with the Berlin Philharmonic Chorus, he worked with and performed under such eminent maestros as Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, and Herbert von Karajan. Dr. Buchholz’s other accolades and accomplishments include his service as Music Director of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, organist and guest conductor appearances with the Colorado Symphony, and Opera Colorado, as well as with orchestras and operas in Mexico, Japan, Korea, and several European countries. He has performed in major cathedrals and concert halls around the world. In 2009, The Denver Philharmonic named him Conductor Laureate.

As a music educator, Dr. Buchholz has served as a member of the organ faculty at Cleveland State University; Associate Professor of Music and Director of Schola Cantorum at St. John Vianney Seminary (Denver); Assistant Professor of Conducting, Director of Orchestral Studies, and faculty member of organ and church music at Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.

Dr. Buchholz is married to the soprano Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam, who is currently on the faculty of Eastern Michigan University.

Mary Ann Carr Wilson

carrwilsonSoprano Mary Ann Carr Wilson will present a breakout session on The Beauty of Children’s Voices and Beauty in Sacred Music Education Programs for Young Singers.

Having trained under experts in Gregorian chant and Renaissance music and having performed in several early music ensembles, Mary Ann served as Music at three different parishes in the San Diego diocese over a of twenty years. In 2019, Mary Ann founded a new apostolate, “Canticle”, where she now focuses on teaching others in the U.S. and Mexico about her love for sacred music, particularly in programs for children.

She directs the premiere youth schola for Canticle, the Jubilate Deo Choir, comprised of forty young Catholics who study and pray sacred music in the Catholic tradition. Mary Ann has been a pioneer of a children’s program called Chant Camp, a week-long fun and immersive experience of sacred music and liturgical catechesis.

Professional collaborations in the area of sacred music include CMAA (Faculty and Board Member), Benedict XVI Institute, and ChantWorks.

 

Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka

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Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka will present a breakout session on The Fundamental Trajectory of Aesthetic Education.

Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka is an associate professor and the director of sacred music at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie) in New York, where she also teaches sacred music courses in the St. Cecilia Academy for Pastoral Musicians.

She has co-edited Mystic Modern: The Music, Thought, and Legacy of Charles Tournemire, published by the Church Music Association of America (CMAA). Her publications also include articles in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Sacred Music, Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, the proceedings of the Gregorian Institute of Canada, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, the Adoremus Bulletin, and Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark).

She was the sometime president and is currently a board member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, serves on the board of the CMAA, is the managing editor of the CMAA’s journal Sacred Music, and serves on the Archdiocese of New York Music Commission. As academic liaison of the CMAA, she has organized and presented papers at several academic conferences on Charles Tournemire, the work of Msgr. Richard Schuler, and the role of Gregorian chant in pastoral ministry and religious education; she was a co-organizer of the Sacra Liturgia USA 2015 conference in New York, and presented papers at the Sacra Liturgia conferences in New York, London, and Milan. Donelson-Nowicka was recently named as a Consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship.

Donelson-Nowicka received her DMA in piano performance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied piano with Paul Barnes, Mark Clinton, and Ann Chang in addition to her organ studies with Quentin Faulkner. She received her undergraduate degree in vocal music education and North Dakota State University, where she studied piano with Dr. Robert Groves and conducting with Dr. JoAnn Miller.

Having studied Gregorian chant at the Catholic University of America and the Abbey of St. Peter in Solesmes, for six years Donelson-Nowicka served as a co-organizer of the Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian Chant Conference, and has given chant workshops in dioceses, parishes, and monasteries across the U.S. and Europe. She is a regular member of the faculty at the Church Music Association of America’s annual Sacred Music Colloquium. Before coming to Dunwoodie, Dr. Donelson-Nowicka served on the faculty at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, and at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, where she taught music theory, music history, piano, and directed the university chorale.

As a choral conductor, Donelson-Nowicka has directed collegiate, semi-professional, amateur, monastic, and children’s choirs. She currently directs the Schola Cantorum of St. Joseph’s Seminary and the Metropolitan Catholic Chorale. She also regularly teaches Gregorian chant to the contemplative sisters at the Monastery of St. Edith Stein in Borough Park, Brooklyn (Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará [SSVM]), and has also given extended workshops to the Benedictine monks of Silverstream Priory in Ireland (County Meath) and the Benedictine nuns of Priorij Nazareth Tegelen in the Netherlands. Additionally, she teaches chant to children using the Ward Method at the Colm Cille Club (Pelham, NY) and Immaculate Conception Children’s Schola Cantorum (Sleepy Hollow), and she recently joined the faculty as a music teacher at the Cardinal Kung Academy in Stamford, Connecticut.

Dr. Donelson-Nowicka is currently working on a project to adapt the Gregorian chants of the Mass proper for the Spanish language. She also co-hosts a weekly podcast with Peter Carter entitled “Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast.”

David Hughes

David Hughes will present a session on Beauty and New Compositions. He is a composer, conductor, and organist who is in international demand as a recitalist and an instructor of Gregorian chant.

Hughes is currently Organist & Choirmaster at St. Patrick’s Parish and Oratory in Waterbury, Connecticut. He served for thirteen years as Organist and Choirmaster at St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he developed a program of seven choirs, including the professional St. Mary’s Schola Cantorum, the volunteer St. Mary’s Choir, and the St. Mary’s Student Schola, a comprehensive program of musical education for children.

He directs Viri Galilæi, an ensemble of men from the tristate New York area who gather weekly to sing Vespers and medieval polyphony from facsimiles of original manuscripts.

Hughes is Director of Music at St. John Fisher Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut, and serves as a consultant to several parishes in Connecticut looking to expand their musical programs. He is Director of Music for the Roman Forum’s annual two-week Summer Symposium at Lake Garda in Italy, where he directs a choir for daily Masses, a large volunteer choir for nightly Vespers, and coordinates performances and recitals with local groups. He was named Chant Instructor for St. Benedict’s Abbey in Still River, Massachusetts, which he visits every few weeks for musical consultation with the monks.

He travels frequently to give workshops, clinics, and recitals in North America, South America, and Europe; this past season had workshops and recitals in Canada, Italy, and Ecuador. He is currently completing, with librettist Richard Munkelt, an opera based on the life of Gaius Gracchus.

Lisa Knutson

Lisa Knutson will present a breakout session on: Modern Questions about Beauty in the Music of Evangelization: St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuit Way of Proceeding for our fall workshop.

Lisa Knutson serves as Director of Music at St. Mary Catholic Church (FSSP Philadelphia) since 2019, where she directs a multi-level Chorister program and adult choirs. As a Catholic music educator and mother of six, Mrs. Knutson is passionate for advancing the work of Sacred Music in vibrant ways through choirs, youth and missionary music.

Mrs. Knutson has facilitated workshops and Chant camps throughout the U.S and Italy, most notably for missionary priests and Religious sisters in Rome and Tuscania (Italy), Santa Clara, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Sioux Falls. While serving as Director of Music for Ss. Peter and Paul in Mankato, Minnesota, Mrs. Knutson founded a parish youth orchestra and taught chant and organ to high school students. Mrs. Knutson has over 15 years of combined choral conducting experience, and has served as organist in Church music programs since she was 14 years old.

Her studies in organ/church music are from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she held the position of Organ Scholar. Additionally, she has Gregorian Chant and Ward Method studies from the Catholic University of America.

Mrs. Knutson is active in the Society for Catholic Liturgy, Church Music Association of America, The Zipoli Institute, and Catholic homeschool groups.

Dr. William Mahrt

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Photo courtesy of Rene Zajner

William Mahrt is Associate Professor and Director of Early Music Singers in the music department at Stanford University, President of the Church Music Association of America, and editor of Sacred Music, the oldest continuously published journal of music in North America.

Dr. Mahrt grew up in Washington state; after attending Gonzaga University and the University of Washington, he completed a doctorate at Stanford University in 1969. He taught at Case Western Reserve University and the Eastman School of Music, and then returned to Stanford in 1972, where he continues to teach early music. Since 1964 he has directed the choir of St. Ann Chapel in Palo Alto, which sings Mass and Vespers in Gregorian chant on all the Sundays of the year, with masses in the polyphonic music of Renaissance masters for the holy days.

His research interests include theory and performance of Medieval and Renaissance music, troubadours, Machaut, Dufay, Lasso, Dante, English Cathedrals, Gregorian chant, and Renaissance polyphony. He has published articles on the relation of music and liturgy, and music and poetry. He frequently leads workshops in the singing of Gregorian chant and the sacred music of the Renaissance.

He will present a breakout session on: What Makes Chant Beautiful .

Dr. Sebastian Morello

Dr. Sebastian Morello will present a session on Beauty and Education.

Sebastian Morello holds a B.A. in philosophy from the Open University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from the University of Buckingham, where he was trained by Sir Roger Scruton. He is a lecturer, columnist, and popular public speaker on both sides of the Atlantic. His writing has been featured in The Catholic Herald, The Catholic World Report, and The European Conservative.

Dr. Morello is the author of The World as God’s Icon (Angelico Press, 2020) and a contributing author of Luther and his Progeny (Angelico Press, 2017) and Beyond McDonaldization: Visions of Higher Education (Routledge 2017).

 

 

Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam

Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam will present a session on Achieving Beautiful Choral Tone.

Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam, soprano, has received the following praise: “…whose voice is the epitome of Mozartean elegance and lyricism…” (New York Concerts Review), “…sings easy, flawlessly and effortlessly expressive” (the German Passauer Presse). She has appeared as guest artist with numerous ensemble groups and festivals, such as the Colorado Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Colorado Summer Music Festival, the American Liszt Society, Boulder Bach Festival, Vianden International Music Festival, and the Concert Series of the Salzburg Summer Music Festival. Known for her musical versatility, sensitivity and genuine interpretation (the Denver Post), she has had a rich performance experience as a soloist in recitals, oratorios, sacred music, chamber and orchestral concerts, and stage works throughout the United States, Germany, Austria, and South Korea. With Dr. Horst Buchholz, organist and conductor, she has toured the U. S. and Europe with special recital programs of Sacred Music for Voice and Organ in the past 15 years.

She has performed and premiered music written for her, and participated in many artistic collaborations with current composers in their works, including Joseph Dorfman’s one act opera Shulamith (Colorado premier), Voice of River Han by David Mullikin, David Kirtley’s Haiku songs of Karigane, Tan Dun’s Silkroad, and James Mobberly’s Words of Love. Her performances of Georgy Kurtag’s Kafka Fragmente have received the acclaim “…Challenging music….Nam soared through it brilliantly, but brought that necessary degree of dramatic involvement as well … it was first-rate.”, by Colorado Rocky Mountain News.

In addition to her position as Professor of Voice at Eastern Michigan University, she has been on the faculty of the Church Music Association of America and at the Vianden International Summer Festival and School in Luxembourg. She has also been Guest Artist and Clinician at numerous institutions such as the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, the Seoul National University of Education, University of Colorado in Boulder, and University of Tennessee in Knoxville, among many others.

Dr. Nam has developed a well-deserved reputation as an important scholar of the rare French song literature of Théodore Gouvy (1819-1898). She has also recorded a CD, Songs of Gouvy, for the Toccata Classics label. A few of the Gouvy songs have been previously recorded, but this is the first CD made of this important composer where the songs are performed in the original key in which they were written. Most of the songs on the CD have never been recorded.

She has published a critical edition of Gouvy’s songs in two volumes with EC Schirmer in 2018. These two volumes are a unique and exclusive publication, and a valuable contribution to song literature. They are the result of her extensive scholarship and research in France, Germany, and the United States.

Rev. Robert Pasley

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Father Robert C. Pasley, KCHS, is the Chaplain of the Church Music Association of America and has been a member of the CMAA since his ordination. He is a priest of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey. Fr. Pasley will share Spiritual Reflections each day, and will offer Holy Mass on Saturday morning.

Because of his association with Msgr. Richard Schuler, he was introduced to the Sacred Music Colloquium and has attended most of the colloquia held since their foundation in 1990. During the tenure of Msgr. Schuler, he was privileged to be the celebrant at orchestral masses at St. Agnes Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He also serves on the faculty at the Colloquium and has served as Vice President and a member of the board of directors of Sacred Music magazine.

Born on November 20, 1955 in Woodbury, N.J., Father Pasley received a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia, an M.A. in Dogmatic Theology from Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, and an M.A. in Education from Seton Hall University. He was ordained by the Most Reverend George H. Guilfoyle in 1982. After ordination, Father Pasley was stationed as an assistant priest in parishes throughout the diocese. In 1992, he was assigned to teach high school. He taught for eight years and during that time became Vice Principal for Academics at Camden Catholic High School.

On October 13, 2000, he was appointed Rector, by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, of the newly established Tridentine-rite Parish of Mater Ecclesiae, Berlin, N.J. (materlatin.org). Mater Ecclesiae was the first diocesan-run Extraordinary Form parish in the United States. Mater Ecclesiae has a full music program of chant, polyphonic masses, and music based on the principles given by the Church for sacred music. Along with Dr. Timothy McDonnell, Fr. Pasley established the annual Mass of Thanksgiving on the Feast of the Assumption. This Mass, a grand event for the Delaware Valley, features some of the greatest orchestral masses ever composed for the sacred liturgy. Some mass settings that have been used for the Assumption Mass are Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, the Missa Septem Dolorum of Carl H. Biber, Schubert’s Mass in Bb Major, and Mozart’s Missa Brevis in C Major.

Finally, Father Pasley is a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus.

Msgr. Andrew Raymond Wadsworth

Msgr. Andrew R. Wadsworth Msgr. Andrew R. Wadsworth will present a session on “The Beauty of Hymnody in the Liturgy of the Hours as a vehicle for Evangelization” for our Fall Virtual Workshop.

Monsignor serves as the Executive Director of the ICEL Secretariat, which is located in Washington, D.C. ICEL is responsible for the production of draft English translations of the Latin liturgical texts for use throughout the world. Monsignor Wadsworth is also the Moderator of the Oratorian Community of St. Philip Neri in Washington, D.C. at St. Thomas Apostle Catholic Church.

A native of the United Kingdom, Msgr Wadsworth is an accomplished musician. His first degree was in music (majoring in voice and piano). After graduate studies in choral conducting and piano accompaniment at Trinity College London and the Royal Academy of Music, he trained as a répétiteur with English National Opera. In 1985, he was awarded the coveted Ricordi Prize for Choral Conducting. As a singer, he has performed extensively and has recorded as a soloist with the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge under the direction of the late Dr Mary Berry, the person who, more than anyone else in the whole of the UK, served as a bridge for Gregorian chant to cross between the preconciliar and postconciliar periods.

Msgr. Wadsworth holds a doctorate in Theology from the University of South Africa, and graduate degrees in Italian from the University of London and Theology from the Pontifical University of Maynooth. Ordained in 1990, he has had a wide range of pastoral experience in parishes, schools, universities and hospitals. A former professor of Ecclesiastical Latin and New Testament Greek at the Westminster Diocesan Seminary, he has also taught Latin and Italian at college and university level. From 1998-2009, he was full-time chaplain to Harrow School where he also collaborated on a number of performance and recording projects in choral music and music theater. His published research is in relation to Dante, Marian studies, Msgr. Ronald Knox, the Latin liturgical texts, and the history of liturgical translations in English since the Second Vatican Council.

In recent years, he has traveled extensively, directing a number of seminars for priests concentrating on the ars celebrandi in both forms of the Roman Rite. He was appointed Executive Director of ICEL in Fall 2009 and currently resides in Washington DC where the Commission’s Secretariat is based. He is in demand as a speaker and has lectured and conducted workshops on the implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal both throughout the United States and in England, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, France and Italy since its implementation.

Gustavo Zayas

Gustavo Zayas will be presenting a breakout session in Spanish on Achieving a Beautiful Tone when Singing Gregorian or Spanish-Language Chant – Nuestra voz en la Misa.

Gustavo Zayas is the Music Director for the Cathedral of St. Mary as well as the Archdiocesan Music Director for the Archdiocese of Miami. He prepares, rehearses, directs and cantors the sacred music for the weekend Masses at the Cathedral in English and in Spanish, as well as the weekly school Masses. Mr. Zayas directs multiple choirs at major pontifical liturgies including the Masses for the Annual Conferences of the Society for Catholic Liturgy (2017) and of the USCCB (2018). He has directed scholas for Masses in the Extraordinary Form (TLM) at the Cathedral and other locations.

Mr. Zayas is a native of Miami, Florida. He has many years of experience singing, having attended vocal workshops since his early teen years. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Florida International University. He has sung with professional groups such as Florida Grand Opera, Seraphic Fire, and Jubilate. He began working for the Archdiocese of Miami in 2013. In 2020 he became one of the first graduate students in the inaugural year of the Master of Arts in Philosophy online program at St. John Vianney College Seminary & Graduate School.

Mr. Zayas shows great zeal for sacred music and tries to impart enthusiasm for learning about it to all his choristers. Written large and always present on his board where he rehearses is the Purpose of sacred music as explained by Pope St. Pius X: the glorification of God and the edification and sanctification of the faithful.

Breakout Sessions

Breakout sessions will be offered Thursday – Saturday on a range of various topics. Complete listing of Breakout Sessions, including descriptions (forthcoming)

Scholarships

The CMAA is dependent on donations for scholarships. If you are interested in sponsoring a musician, priest or seminarian’s attendance, please write to us at programs@musicasacra.com or make a donation to our Annual Fund. No amount is too small. All scholarship donations are applied directly to scholarships. If making a donation to the Annual Fund, you can also specify that your donation is to be used for scholarships. To make a donation to the Annual Fund, please use this form or make an online donation:

Scholarship Assistance may be available for persons of limited means. To apply for a CMAA Workshop scholarship, please send us an email at programs@musicasacra.com as soon as possible, describing your financial need and interest in the program.

REGISTRATION

All registrations must be made online using either a credit card or PayPal.

Choose from the various options on our online shop page:

  • Basic Registration: (no charge) Allows access to the daily Spiritual Reflections by our chaplain Rev. Robert Pasley and the daily Night Prayer. Our Saturday Mass will be live-streamed on YouTube for all to attend.
  • Workshop Registrations Choose the days you would like to attend and register for each day at a cost of $20/day.
  • Spanish Sessions On Friday, October 15, three extra sessions will be offered on 1) Achieving a Beautiful Tone when Singing Gregorian or Spanish-Language Chant (Spanish), 2) The necessity of Beauty in the Liturgy (Spanish) – Fr. Rhodes Bolster (Spanish), and 3) Beautiful Sacred Music in the Context of a Spanish-Language Liturgy – Jose Ballon (Spanish). These sessions will be completely in Spanish. These sessions are offered free of charge.

Cancellation: No refunds of registration fees will be offered.

Please note that all participants are expected to adhere to our CMAA Code of Conduct.

Join the CMAA

Helpful Links

Curious about the Sacred Music from previous CMAA events? Listen to some of the sound files from previous years at this website: http://recordings.musicasacra.com/ Or watch this video documentary about the Sacred Music Colloquium when it was held at Loyola University in 2009 (50 min.)

Or watch this more recent video which was aired on EWTN’s Extraordinary Faith program from our 2015 Colloquium in Pittsburgh, PA at Duquesne University (28.31 min.).

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