Mary Ann Carr Wilson
Soprano Mary Ann Carr Wilson will be directing the women’s schola at Colloquium XXIX. She will also present a breakout session on chant for children.
Mary Ann Carr Wilson holds a B.M. and an M.M. in Vocal Performance from San Diego State University. She enjoys a regional career and has appeared as soloist with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, and the San Diego Master Chorale. Mary Ann also performs a wide variety of chamber music, including Irish traditional music.
Having trained under experts in Gregorian chant and Renaissance music and having performed in several early music ensembles, Mary Ann now works with the Benedict XVI Institute, teaching others about her love for sacred music, particularly in programs for children. Carr Wilson has been teaching children to sing Gregorian Chant for several years in a summer program called “Chant Camp”.
At the colloquium she will offer private vocal coaching sessions during the week. On a first-come, first-served basis, individuals may schedule one-on-one vocal lessons with Carr Wilson during registration for the special Colloquium rate of only $30/session. The thirty-minute sessions are limited, so you can pre-register and pay for a session (the session day and time will be assigned to you) or you can register and pay for a session at registration on July 1st. Prepayment is required for vocal sessions and can be made during conference registration. Our administrative assistant will manage her teaching schedule and accept payments. To pre-register for a vocal coaching session, please contact us at programs@musicasacra.com.
Peter Carter
Peter Carter will serve as organist for one of the week’s liturgies at the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul. He is director of sacred music at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Allentown, New Jersey. There he conducts a twenty-voice semi-professional Schola Cantorum who sing for a weekly Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form.
He received his B.M. (summa cum laude) and M.M. in organ performance at Westminster Choir College, where he studied the organ with Alan Morrison, Daryl Robinson, and organ improvisation with Peter Conte. While at Westminster Choir College, he studied conducting with Dr. James Jordan and Dr. Andrew Megill, and voice with Elizabeth Sutton and Dr. Christopher Arneson.
He sang with the Westminster Symphonic Choir for three seasons, frequently performing at Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, and the Kimmel Center of Philadelphia. He sang under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Jane Glover, and many others with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and Berliner Philharmoniker. His 2014 performance of the Beethoven 9th Symphony with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra was recorded and broadcast by PBS.
For three years, he sang with the Grammy® nominated Westminster Williamson Voices and attended the Choral Institute at Oxford, a summer program co-sponsored by Westminster Choir College and Oxford University. He sang in their 2016 CD Carolae – Music for Christmas and was the organist in their 2016 CD Hole in the Sky. He also sang with early music ensemble Westminster Kantorei, which toured France and England the summer of 2016, performing in Chartres, Paris, Ely, and Windsor Castle. Currently, he sings with the professional choir The Same Stream and is on the CD of their upcoming release Serenity: The Music of Paul Mealor.
Mr. Carter has performed as an organist throughout the United States and in 2016 gave a concert on the historic organ of the Basilica of St. Maximan in France. In 2017 and 2018, he was the organist for Pontifical High Masses of Bishop Serratelli at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey. He has upcoming concerts in the New Jersey area for the 2018-2019 season.
His teachers for Gregorian chant include his first organ teacher, Richard Morris, and Daniel Saulnier, musicologist long associated with the abbey at Solesmes, with whom he studied in 2014. Since 2015, he has given annual Gregorian chant workshops during the summer at the seminary of the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France. He has also given workshops and taught summer camps on Gregorian chant and sacred music in the tri-state area.
He is the director of liturgical music for the Pro Civitate Dei France and Pro Civitate Dei Chile summer conferences hosted by the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian. His latest enterprise is becoming co-host of Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast.
Charles Cole
Charles Cole will direct the Men’s Schola Chant Choir, as well as a polyphony choir at the XXIX Colloquium in Philadelphia. Cole’s polyphony choir will sing a variety of motets, as well as portions of the polyphonic ordinaries for Friday and Saturday Masses.
An accomplished organist and choral director, he comes to us from the London Oratory (often referred to as the “Brompton Oratory” because of its location in London).
Charles Cole began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral. He went on to win a major music scholarship to Ampleforth and organ scholarships at Exeter College, Oxford and Westminster Cathedral. He is Assistant Director of Music at the London Oratory where he directs the London Oratory Junior Choir which, in addition to its liturgical duties, provides the Children’s Chorus for the Royal Ballet’s productions at Covent Garden.
He was appointed Director of the Schola Cantorum at the London Oratory School in 2012. The Schola for boys aged 8-18 sings polyphony and plainchant at Mass every Saturday at the London Oratory Church. The choir also sings concerts and tours abroad, and is well known for the soundtracks to the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films. The boys were recently invited to sing with the Choristers of Westminster Cathedral in a joint performance of the Bach B minor Mass.
He directed the children’s chorus in a 400th anniversary performance of the Monteverdi Vespers with the Monteverdi Choir conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms concert series. He was involved in two of the papal liturgies on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to London, conducting London Brass in James MacMillan’s Tu es Petrus commissioned for the Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and playing the organ for the Prayer Vigil at Hyde Park for a congregation of 80,000. Recently he has given organ recitals in St. Petersburg (2012), Notre Dame, Paris (2013—the 850th anniversary year of the cathedral’s foundation), and Jerusalem (2013).
At the invitation of James MacMillan he spoke to speak about Gregorian chant at Musica Sacra Scotland’s inaugural conference. In August of 2014, as part of the Palestine Choral Festival, he led a number of choral workshops for children’s and adult choirs in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem.
Dr. Jennifer Donelson
Jennifer Donelson joins the 2019 faculty again to direct the Chant Fundamentals Choir for Men and Women. In addition, she will present breakout sessions on Spanish-language resources and an introduction to chironomy (chant conducting). She will also participate in the panel discussion “Chant on Tap” on the evening of July 4.
Donelson 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. Donelson has previously served as an Associate Professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. Having studied Gregorian chant at the Catholic University of America and the Abbey of St. Peter in Solesmes, France, Dr. Donelson has served as the director of music at St. Gregory the Great Seminary (Diocese of Lincoln, NE) and St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center (UNL). She currently directs the Schola Cantorum of St. Joseph’s Seminary, the Metropolitan Catholic Chorale, and teaches Gregorian chant to children using the Ward Method at the Colm Cille Club (Pelham, NY).
She has given diocesan workshops in Gregorian chant across the U.S., is a co-founder of the annual Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian chant conference, and has served on the faculty of the annual colloquium of the Church Music Association of America. In 2017, Donelson taught the CMAA’s Summer Chant Intensive course at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. While in south Florida, Donelson directed the scholae cantorum at St. Michael the Archangel and Sts. Francis and Clare parishes in Miami, and taught according to the Ward method in the children’s choirs at the Oratory of Ave Maria, FL.
She has co-edited Mystic Modern: The Music, Thought, and Legacy of Charles Tournemire (Church Music Association of America). 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, and Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark). She serves on the board of the Society for Catholic Liturgy as well as the CMAA, is the managing editor of the CMAA’s journal Sacred Music, was a co-organizer of the Sacra Liturgia USA 2015 conference in New York, and a speaker at the Sacra Liturgia conferences in London, Milan, and the upcoming conference in Toronto. Together with Peter Carter, she hosts a weekly podcast entitled Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast.
Michael Garrepy
Michael Garrepy will serve as organist for one of the week’s liturgies at the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul. A native of Rhode Island, Michael currently serves as the Director of Music at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Bristol, Rhode Island, where he directs a thriving music program.
Michael is a graduate of Rhode Island College where he studied organ and improvisation with Stephen Martorella. He is currently pursuing his M.M. in organ performance at Boston University, studying organ and continuo with Peter Sykes.
An accomplished vocalist, Michael has performed throughout New England as both a soloist and ensemble singer. He is a core member of the Ecclesia Consort of New England and a founding member of Ensemble Laetare, a professional choral ensemble dedicated to the rich heritage of Catholic Sacred Music. In addition to his work as a chorister, Michael is an accomplished soloist, having been featured at the Newport Music Festival as the baritone soloist in the Fauré Requiem. Other concert appearances include excerpts from Mendelssohn’s Elijah and most recently Saint-Seans Christmas Oratorio with Ecclesia Consort.
Clara Gerdes
Clara Gerdes will play a noon organ recital on the famed Wanamaker Organ at Macy’s on July 3rd, 2019.
Clara Gerdes, from Davidson, North Carolina, is a fifth-year student at the Curtis Institute where she studies with Alan Morrison. She received first prizes in the Albert Schweitzer, AGO-Quimby Mid-Atlantic Regional and UNCSA School of the Arts organ competitions and was the recipient of the first annual AGO Pogorzelski-Yankee scholarship.
She has performed on both coasts, including at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York and Washington National Cathedral, and at Spoleto, the Oregon Bach Festival, Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts and most recently the Uncommon Music Festival in Sitka, Alaska. She serves as organ scholar at Saint Mark’s Church, Locust Street and has been on the faculties of Curtis Summerfest and the 2018 Philadelphia Pipe Organ Encounter. Clara also enjoys composing, transcribing and playing chamber music on piano and harpsichord. She is a Curtis resident assistant.
David Hughes
David J. Hughes returns to the Colloquium faculty this year as director of a Polyphony Choir. David will also lead the new music seminar again this year. The new music seminar offers composers the opportunity to hone their craft with colleagues in two breakouts during the week. There will also be a New Music Reading Session open to all participants, where the best compositions from the new music seminar will be sung by conference participants. David will also present a breakout session on singing polyphonic music from manuscripts.
David is Organist & Choirmaster at St. Mary Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he oversees a program of seven choirs, including the professional St. Mary’s Schola Cantorum, which specializes in late medieval and early Renaissance polyphony in the context of a weekly Solemn Mass in the traditional rite, and the volunteer St. Mary’s Choir, whose core repertoire is English music of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is founder and director of the St. Mary’s Student Schola, a comprehensive program of musical education for children. The Student Schola sings regularly for Masses and Vespers in Connecticut and elsewhere, including a foray to World Youth Day in Madrid to sing Gregorian propers and polyphonic motets at stadium Masses. He directs Viri Galilaei, an ensemble of men from the tristate New York area who gather weekly to sing Vespers, to explore the singing of medieval polyphony from original manuscripts, and to discuss matters of theology, philosophy, and politics.
In demand as an instructor of Gregorian chant, he frequently travels for workshops, clinics, and recitals. He has written several film scores and a number of Masses and motets. David’s composition teachers have included Ruth Schonthal and John Halle, and he has studied organ with Paul Jacobs and Daniel Sullivan. A native of Stamford, Connecticut, he is a graduate of Yale College.
Sr. Maria Kiely
Sr. Maria M. Kiely, O.S.B. will give a plenary lecture at the Colloquium on the use of the Book of Genesis in the Vesper hymns attributed to St. Gregory the Great.
She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and after an early exposure to beautiful sacred music through the St. Ann Choir, pursued studies in music at Scripps College, Claremont Colleges, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; and Stanford University, where she specialized in Early Music and Gregorian Chant. She received a BA from Thomas Aquinas College in Liberal Arts, an MA, from L’université de Laval, Québec in Philosophy; and a PhD from The Catholic University of America in classics and early Christian Greek and Latin.
She has served as a lecturer at Catholic University of America and more recently as an instructor of Greek at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. Her recent research interests have included St. Ambrose of Milan, Paulinus of Nola’s church complex at Cimitile, monasticism in the early Church, and early Christian hymns. She is a Benedictine nun in the Congregation of Solesmes, She also serves on the Editorial Board for ICEL (the International Commission on English in the Liturgy).
Dr. Nathan Knutson
Nathan Knutson will direct the Refresher Chant Choir for Men and Women at this year’s Sacred Music Colloquium. He will also serve as organist for one of the week’s liturgies at the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul.
Acclaimed for his masterful command of technique and sound, Nathan Knutson continues to provoke intellects, captivate emotions and educate souls. Earning highest marks in chamber music and solo performance, Knutson holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as a Doctorate in Sacred Music from the Graduate Theological Foundation. As a young artist, he was prize laureate in more than 15 piano competitions, touring more than 30 states, Austria, France, and Italy.
Dr. Knutson is the Director of Sacred Music at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, [Wynnewood] Philadelphia, where he holds the Lucille M. Francesco Chair in Sacred Music. The orthodox program includes coursework of Singing the Mass in Latin, English, and Spanish, Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, organ, voice, music history, as well as a rigorous schedule of choirs and scholae in the College and Theological Seminary divisions.
Prior to his appointment at the seminary, Knutson has served in a variety of capacities at the Diocesan, Cathedral, University and parish levels. He worked for the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota as Director of the Office of Worship, Assistant to the Bishop, and most notably as the Diocesan Master of Ceremonies. A unique liturgical function for a musician, this role has afforded him a distinctive outlook on music from view of the Sanctuary, deacon, priest, and bishop. As music director and organist, Knutson has served the Dioceses of Marquette, Michigan as well as New Ulm, Minnesota, holding the positions of Cathedral and Diocesan director. At the pipe organ, Knutson holds a passionate role, having assisted with multiple organ projects, notably with JFNordlie organ company. As a dad and carpenter, he has been known as one of the few musicians who lays his own choir loft floor, switching carpet to hardwood.
As performing artist and professor, Knutson is a frequent pedagogue and organist. In 2018, highlights included the organist for the feast day Mass of St. John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. Together with wife Lisa, a choral director and organist, they are proud parents who advocate the Sacred and performing arts. The Knutsons serve as administrators of the Domenico Zipoli Institute (domenicozipoli.org) which aims to evangelize the culture through the Incarnate Word, the source of all Beauty, through sacred music. This institute provides resources for the teaching and training in music for the communities of consecrated religious families throughout the world, and also seeks to promote the rich cultural heritage of missionary music, notably the Hispanic Baroque. The Knutsons have four daughters and one son.
Dr. Ann Labounsky
We are very pleased to have Dr. Ann Labounsky on the faculty of CMAA’s Colloquium XXIX. As professor of music and chairman of the Organ and Sacred Music degree programs at Duquesne University, she oversees undergraduate and graduate programs in sacred music. Dr. Labounsky will offer two breakout sessions on organ technique and will also serve as organist for Vespers.
Dr. Labounsky is widely known, both in the United States and in Europe, as a virtuoso performer and improviser at the organ and particularly as a leading American disciple of Jean Langlais. From 1962 to 1964 she lived and studied in Paris as a Fulbright scholar. There, as an organ student of André Marchal and Jean Langlais, she immersed herself in the French organ tradition, studying many of Langlais’ organ compositions with the composer, and playing them for him on the organ at Sainte-Clotilde. In 1964, as Langlais’ student at the Schola Cantorum, she was awarded the Diplôme de Virtuosité with Mention Maximum in both performance and improvisation, the first American organist to be so honored.
Labounsky has been a frequent concert performer on two continents, including a number of recitals on the organ at Sainte-Clotilde. Her performances have been broadcast over the French National Radio, as well as public radio stations in the United States. Her undergraduate and graduate degrees in organ were earned at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. She also holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of a biography of Langlais, Jean Langlais: The Man and His Music, (Amadeus Press, 2000). In celebration of the centennial of Jean Langlais in 2007, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Guild of Organists produced a DVD entitled Life and Music of Jean Langlais for which she was the narrator and performer at the Pasadena Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California.
Labounsky holds the position of Organ Artist in Residence at First Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh and Organist and Choir Director at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh.. For more information about Dr. Labounsky, visit her website.
Graduate and undergraduate music students may receive credit for their attendance at CMAA Colloquium and Summer Chant courses through the Duquesne University Mary Pappert Department of Music.
Mark Loria
Mark Loria will serve as organist for one of the week’s liturgies at the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul.
A native of Staten Island, NY, Mark Loria was appointed Principal Organist of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in 2017. He has previously served as Organist and Accompanist of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, NJ and as Associate Organist of the Church of Saint Jean Baptiste in New York City. For four seasons, he served as keyboardist and assistant conductor for the contemporary music ensemble, Orchestra 2001, with whom he has presented the music of George Crumb to audiences in Cuba, United Arab Emirates, and China.
He has appeared as guest conductor with the New York-based ensemble mise-en, whom he has led in world premieres of music by Elisabeth Harnik, Eric Lyon, Karen Power, Brian Fennelly, and Reiko Futing. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College and Westminster Choir College and is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists.
Dr. William Mahrt
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.
At this year’s Colloquium, Dr. Mahrt will present four breakout sessions on these topics: Psalm Tones, Chant modes, Chant Analysis and Improvisation Techniques. He will also be delivering a plenary address entitled “Why the Liturgy Should Be Sung”.
Dr. Timothy McDonnell
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Timothy McDonnell will be returning to the CMAA faculty for the 2019 Colloquium and will be directing a polyphonic choir during the week. McDonnell’s Polyphony Choir will sing a variety of motets, as well as portions of the polyphonic Mass ordinaries for Friday and Saturday Masses. He will also present a breakout session on conducting techniques.
Widely recognized for his broad skill set and musicianship, conductor-composer Timothy McDonnell has earned a reputation for creativity and leadership on and off the podium. Dr. McDonnell has led several distinguished ensembles, including the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, and the Collier County Sinfonietta, in works from across the repertoire. In 2016, McDonnell was appointed Director of Choral Activities at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America.
Equally at home in the orchestral and choral idioms, McDonnell’s performances have gained critical acclaim and national distinction. Dr. McDonnell is an enthusiastic musical collaborator, and his choral-orchestral partnerships include not only standard works such as the Symphony No. 9 of Beethoven and Carmina Burana, but also extend to less frequently performed masterpieces such as Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and Franck’s Psyché. He has worked with some of the most renowned conductors in the world, including Gustavo Dudamel, Andrey Boreyko, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Cristian Macelaru, and Robert Page. McDonnell has served as the Music Director of the Schola Nova Ensemble, Studio Lirico Opera Program, Elysium Concert Opera, the Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida, the Ars Laudis Festival Chorus & Orchestra, the choirs of Ave Maria University, and the North American College in Vatican City.
Dr. McDonnell’s performances with University ensembles have won national recognition. In 2013 McDonnell was a finalist for the American Prize in choral conducting for his performance of Mozart’s Requiem, and in 2014 he took third place in the 2014 American Prize for his performance of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem.
McDonnell’s compositions and arrangements have been performed by leading and regional ensembles, including the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Yale Repertory Orchestra, and the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. Mr. McDonnell was a finalist for the 2014 American Prize in composition. McDonnell has prepared numerous performance editions, including sacred works by Antonio Caldara, and a new translation of Haydn’s The Creation. McDonnell has cultivated a sub-specialty in music for chamber ensemble drawn from every era. His arrangements of works by Gustav Mahler, Lehár, Bruckner, and Sibelius have increased the chamber orchestra repertory, and have been praised for their innovative use of limited instrumental forces.
Matthew J. Meloche
Canadian-born organist Matthew J. Meloche has been working for the restoration of sacred music in the Catholic Church since he was first hired as a music director of a large Windsor, Ontario parish at age 15. For the past 20 years he has worked at parishes from 700 to 4500 families, directing music in a variety of settings, from Masses in the Extraordinary Form to “Life Teen” Masses where he brought Gregorian chant, and teaching dozens of priests and deacons to sing their parts of the Mass. He has led retreats and missions, delivered academic lectures and practical workshops, and performed organ concerts throughout the United States and Canada.
He studied philosophy at the University of Windsor before deciding to move to the United States to pursue church music as a full-time profession. While in Canada he served at many parishes, including as Music Director and Principal Organist of the highly acclaimed music program at the Windsor Tridentine Mass Community (www.windsorlatinmass.org). After five years working at parishes in the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio he moved to Phoenix, Arizona (to escape the snow forever). In 2013 he was named Director of Sacred Music at the Cathedral of SS. Simon and Jude where he has overseen a major choir loft renovation, the design and building of the Cathedral’s first pipe organ (a 52-rank instrument), and recently the construction of a brand new rehearsal room for the Cathedral Choir – 10 years worth of projects accomplished in 5 years. The 9:00am Choral Mass at the Cathedral is broadcast on local television (with upwards of 70,000 viewers), broadcast nationally on radio, and is available to viewers around the world via the internet.
Meloche will present two breakout sessions on building choral and parish programs.
Jeffrey Morse
Jeffrey Morse will serve on the Colloquium XXIX faculty as the director of the Chant Conducting Choir. He will lead participants in the ever-popular solfege warmup each morning. Jeffrey will also present breakout sessions on the Ward Method and another on Dr. Mary Berry, with whom Morse studied chant. Jeffrey will also participate in the panel discussion “Chant on Tap” on the evening of July 4.
Morse is a conductor, singer, and teacher of Gregorian Chant. A student of Dr. Mary Berry (Cambridge, UK) in Gregorian Chant and Gregorian Semiology. He also attended Sonoma State University and the Université François Rabelais de Tours (France). He was a student of Dr. Alise Brown at the University of N. Colorado in Ward Method, a method of teaching music, both modern and Gregorian notation and theory to school children. A native of Northern California, he spent much of his formative years in England where he was exposed to the English choral tradition and especially the tradition of child choristers.
In 2002, he established in a small parish in California a flourishing child chorister program under the pedagogical direction of the Royal School of Church Music, proving that even ordinary parishes can musically benefit from this most ancient of Church traditions, the child chorister. In this program, the children were trained in chant and in singing the treble parts of the polyphony with the choir every Sunday and major feast. The fruits of this learning were not only beneficial for the singing of services at the parish, adding to the beauty and solemnity of the liturgies, but promise future fruits as well, as already some of the original child-choristers have gone on to undergraduate and graduate studies in sacred music.
Mr. Morse is widely regarded as a leader in the teaching of Gregorian Chant in the U.S. and has given many workshops for adults and children in this matchless music of the Church. He is a regular chant conductor and teacher at the annual Colloquium of the Church Music Association of America. Enthusiastic and missionary about this music, he has been called “disciplined in his approach, but fun and amusing, displaying a complete knowledge and understanding of his subject and its practice and use in the Church of the 21st century”.
Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam
Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam will conduct our Beginning Polyphony Choir and will also offer breakout sessions on vocal pedagogy and changing voices at the upcoming Colloquium for 2019. In addition, private vocal coaching with Dr. Nam will again be made available at the CMAA Colloquium this year.
For several years, Dr. Nam has been on the faculty of the CMAA Colloquium, sharing her expertise in vocal pedagogy, vocal performance and directing techniques. She has also served as a plenary speaker and as a director of polyphonic choirs. Once again she will offer to assist participants on a personal basis with individual vocal coaching.
On a first-come, first-served basis, individuals may schedule one-on-one vocal lessons with Dr. Nam during registration for the special Colloquium rate of only $30/session. The thirty-minute sessions are limited, so you can pre-register and pay for a session (the session day and time will be assigned to you) or you can register and pay for a session at registration on June 19th. Prepayment is required for vocal sessions, which can be made during conference registration. Our administrative assistant will manage her teaching schedule and accept payments. To pre-register for a vocal coaching session, please contact us at programs@musicasacra.com.
Soprano MeeAe Cecilia Nam has extensive performance experience as soloist in recitals, oratorio, sacred music, chamber and orchestral concerts, and operas in the United States, Germany, Austria and South Korea. She has gained a fine reputation for her musical interpretations with her numerous concerts in recent years.
Dr. Nam gained a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Before joining the faculty of Music at Eastern Michigan University in 2009 she taught voice at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she served as chair of the vocal studies program for 5 years. She also founded and directed the annual Vocal Arts Competition for Young Colorado Musicians.
Since 2000 with her husband, Dr. Horst Buchholz, organist and conductor, she has given numerous recitals for organ and voice in Germany and Austria. She has collaborated with world-class musicians including Krista Bennion Feeney, Joseph Robinson, James Buswell and sung under the direction of Horst Buchholz, Joseph Dorfman, Adam Flatt, Michael Christie and Martin Isepp among others.
Her excellent understanding of works by Mozart has led her to perform many of his sacred works including Exsultate jubilate, Grand Mass in C minor, and the Requiem performed with the members of the Mozarteum Orchestra in the 250th anniversary year of Mozart’s birth in Salzburg, Austria. She has given many performances of works such as Bach’s Cantatas, Easter Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Masses, Schubert’s Masses, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, Mahler’s Gloria, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Due to her great interest in contemporary music she has premiered, in her region, many living composers’ works including Joseph Dorfman’s one act opera Shulamith for soprano and percussion, Voice of River Han by David Mullikin (won distinguished composer by MTNA), James Mobberly’s Words of Love, Georgy Kurtag’s Kafka Fragmente for soprano and violin, Tan Dun’s Silkroad for soprano and percussion.
Dr. Nam is a frequent guest recitalist and lecturer for the Music Teachers National Association and recently gave presentations at the conferences of the College Music Society and the American Liszt Society. She served as a faculty member and performer at the Vianden International Summer Festival and school in Luxembourg in 2011.
As lecturer and vocal clinician Dr. Nam frequently travels throughout the United States, Europe and South Korea giving vocal workshops and master classes at Universities.
Her students have been and are active in national and international competitions and music festivals. Recently Dr. Nam appeared as advisor and guest artist clinician in the first annual Seoul International Opera Festival, where three of her students performed lead roles in Mozart’s “Magic Flute.”
She is currently undertaking a project of a CD publication of “Forgotten Songs of Théodore Gouvy”. She has been giving a lecture recital of Gouvy’s songs at various places including the Hanns Eisler Musik-Hochschule in Berlin, Eastern Michigan University, Kent State University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and also during the American Liszt Society Conference in Portland, Oregon.
“Soprano Mee-Ae Nam has a voice of surprising power for so petite a frame, accurate in intonation, well-supported in delivery and with sly bits of interpretation thrown in.” “A clear, well-supported voice that moves easily in its registers. …..extra care in projecting words.” — Glenn Giffin, Denver Post
“…Leicht und makellos in den Höhen, dramatisch im Ausdruck füllte sie mühelos den akustisch eher schwierigen Kirchenraum. In der Mozartarie… ließ sie großartig perlende Koloraturen höhen..” [Light and flawless in the high passages, dramatic in expression, she effortlessly filled the formerly difficult church space. In the Mozart aria… she made glistening coloratura arise] — Max Götz, Passauer Neue Presse, Waldkirchen, Germany
Rev. Robert Pasley
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 teach a breakout session for clergy and seminarians on the basics of singing the Mass.
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. Father Pasley will teach a breakout session on “Singing the Mass” for clergy and seminarians and also will offer a breakout session on “Working with your Director of Music”.
Dom Alcuin Reid
Dom Alcuin Reid is the Founding Prior of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France – a new foundation of classical Benedictine observance.
After studies in Theology and in Education in Melbourne, Australia, he was awarded a PhD from King’s College, University of London, for a thesis on twentieth century liturgical reform (2002), which was subsequently published as The Organic Development of the Liturgy with a preface by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Ignatius, 2005; trans. Lo sviluppo organico della Liturgia, Cantagalli, 2013). He has lectured internationally and has published extensively on the Sacred Liturgy. His writings have been translated into Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Lithuanian and Polish.
As the International Coordinator of the Sacra Liturgia initiatives (including international confernences in Rome 2013, New York 2015, London 2016, Milan 2017, he has edited Sacred Liturgy: The Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church (Ignatius, 2014) and Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2015). His latest publication is The T&T Clark Companion to Liturgy (2016).
He is currently working on a second edition of the Companion to Liturgy as well as Continuity or Rupture? A Study of the Second Vatican Council’s Reform of the Liturgy and Praying the Sacred Liturgy: Drawing from the Source and Summit of Christian Life, as well as editing the proceedings from Sacra Liturgia Milan, 2017.
Dom Alcuin will present a plenary talk on Wednesday, July 3 at 10:30 am entitled: “In the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy” (CCC 1125)—Reflections on authority in liturgy today”.
William Riccio
William Riccio joins us again on staff for Colloquium XXIX as Master of Ceremonies during the week. His extensive experience with both forms of the Roman Rite have made his assistance invaluable to the CMAA. Bill will work with celebrants and servers to assure the seamless coordination of all our liturgies. Many participants have gained valuable experience and knowledge about serving at both Extraordinary and Ordinary Form Masses in past years by serving with Bill during our liturgies. We know this will again be true in 2019.
Bill Riccio is a frequent contributor to the New Liturgical Movement, offering articles about the Traditional Latin Mass. He serves as Master of Ceremonies at St. Mary’s in Norwalk, CT.
Dr. Edward Schaefer
Edward Schaefer will direct the Office Chant Choir during the week. In addition, he will present a session on notation history and one breakout session on semiology during the 2019 Colloquium. He will also participate in the panel discussion “Chant on Tap” on the evening of July 4.
Dr. Schaefer is professor of music and associate dean of the College of the Arts at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, FL. He is also the director the Florida Schola Cantorum, a group of dedicated singers of chant and polyphony and a deacon for the Diocese of Orlando.
Dr. Schaefer’s area of study focuses primarily on semiology, the study of ancient musical notation, and its impact on contemporary performance of chant. In addition, he is an advocate for the improvement of education through technology. Combining these two interests, he has taught online courses since 2001. Currently, he is teaching a professional development seminar to music professionals across the country on the subject of semiology. He is currently working with the Digital Worlds Institute at UF and L’École de Chant Grégorien du Choeur Grégorien de Paris to develop interactive software for the learning of the basic vocabulary and grammar of the notations of St-Gall and Laon.
Dr. Schaefer is the translator of Daniel Saulnier’s Les Modes Grégoriens and Le Chant Grégorien, both published by Solesmes. He is also the author of Catholic Music Through the Ages, (Hillenbrand Books), and author/editor of Missa Cantata: A Notated Sacramentary, Evangélia Cantáta: A Notated Book of Gospels, and numerous articles on various aspects of sacred music.
Dr. Susan Treacy
Dr. Susan Treacy, a member-at-large on the CMAA’s board of directors, will present four breakout sessions at the 2019 Colloquium. She will present a breakout session on each of the following key Church documents of interest to every church musician: Tra le sollecitudini, Mediator Dei, Sacrosanctum Concilium, and Musicam sacram.
Susan Treacy, Ph.D., joined the faculty of Ave Maria University in 2005, after having taught at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Luther College, and Emory University, where she was a Mellon Faculty Fellow in the Humanities. Dr. Treacy holds the Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of North Texas; her B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees are from Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music.
Her main research interests are in Catholic liturgical music and in English devotional song of the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. Recent publications have been a chapter, “Gregorian Chant,” in Alcuin Reid, ed., T&T Clark Companion to Liturgy (London, 2016), 239-57, and “Joseph Bonnet as a Catalyst in the Early Twentieth-Century Gregorian Chant Revival,” in Donelson and Schloesser, eds., Mystic Modern: The Music, Thought, and Legacy of Charles Tournemire (Richmond, VA: 2014), 11-21.
In addition to her scholarly writing, Dr. Treacy is a regular contributor to the Saint Austin Review (StAR) with her column Musica Donum Dei. She was on the editorial committee of The Adoremus Hymnal (1997) and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Church Music Association of America (CMAA). For the last ten years Dr. Treacy has been a co-organizer of the Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian Chant Conference, which draws chant enthusiasts from all over Florida and beyond, and at which she has given workshops on Gregorian chironomy, square notation, and Church documents on sacred music.
Her Gregorian chant textbook—A Plain and Easy Introduction Gregorian Chant (Cantica Nova Publications)—has been lauded as “the best instant resource for Gregorian chant available in English” (Bruce Ludwick, Director of Music at Saint Paul Cathedral, Birmingham, AL).
At Ave Maria University Dr. Treacy teaches music history, art song literature, sacred music courses, and Gregorian chant; in addition, she directs the Women’s Schola Gregoriana and the Men’s Schola Gregoriana.
