Christopher Berry
Christopher Berry joins the Colloquium faculty as conductor of a polyphony choir and also the Chant Conducting choir.
Berry’s polyphony choir will sing a variety of motets, as well as portions of the polyphonic ordinaries for Thursday and Saturday Masses.
He will present a breakout session on the organ and he will also serve as organist for First Vespers of the Sacred Heart on Thursday evening.
Christopher Berry is the Director of Sacred Music and Organist at St. Stanislaus Oratory in Milwaukee, WI, an apostolate of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
Mr. Berry was immersed in French organ music from his first years of study with James Higdon at the University of Kansas and Jesse Eschbach at the University of North Texas. During his undergraduate studies he spent a summer in Paris studying with Marie-Claire Alain and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé. He furthered his study of French organ music during a scholarship year in Paris where he received a Premier Prix at Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory under the direction of Francois-Henri Houbart, organist of the Madeleine church in Paris. During this time, he honed his improvisation skills with Sophie-Veronique Choplin. Mr. Berry was a two-time semifinalist in the AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation.
Mr. Berry’s time in Paris sparked an interest in the study of chant when he had the opportunity to study Gregorian chant conducting at the Paris Conservatory with Louis-Marie Vigne. Mr. Berry also sang with the Choeur Gregorien de Paris under the direction of Mr. Vigne.
In addition to his formal choral conducting study with Michael Bauer at the University of Kansas, Mr. Berry learned the craft while serving as accompanist for noted choral conductors Simon Carrington, Andrew Megill, Dale Warland, and Anton Armstrong. He was fortunate to have as mentors Lynn Trapp, Michie Akin, Marie Rubis-Bauer, and Peter Latona, for whom Mr. Berry worked as Assistant Director of Music at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
He is often engaged to lead chant workshops and presentations – recently for the Sacred Music Retreat in Sleepy Eye, MN, and for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Mr. Berry has built a reputation for his expertise as an organist and choral conductor working in grand spaces. At the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception he was organist for numerous televised liturgies under the direction of Peter Latona. He introduced Gregorian Propers and Renaissance polyphonic ordinaries at Holy Trinity RC in New York, working with some of the finest musicians in the city.
During his tenure at the Pontifical North American College, he conducted masses at St. Peter’s Basilica, a private concert for patrons of the Chicago Symphony in the Sistine Chapel , and completed a recording for JAV of the Duruflé Messe “Cum jubilo” and Propers for the Immaculate Conception entitled Regina Immaculata.
He has led two choir tours of England with the Church of the Incarnation Choir in Dallas, with residencies at Westminster Abbey, Lichfield Cathedral, and St. George’s, Windsor. Prior to his work at St. Stanislaus, Mr. Berry spent 8 years building an impressive choral program at the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee, which can be heard on the recording Pax Tibi.
He currently teaches Organ at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI and maintains an active private teaching studio.
Dr. Horst Buchholz
Dr. Horst Buchholz, Vice President of the Church Music Association of America, will be directing one of the polyphony choirs at the 32nd Sacred Music Colloquium. Buchholz’ choir will sing a variety of motets during the week, as well as portions of the polyphonic Mass ordinaries on Thursday and Saturday. He will also present an organ breakout session on Accompaniment of the Mass Ordinary. He will also serve as organist for the Mass on Friday, June 24.
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, and will also be on the faculty at this year’s Colloquium.
Mary Ann Carr Wilson
Soprano Mary Ann Carr Wilson will direct the Beginning Chant Choir for Men and Women for this year’s Sacred Music Colloquium. She will also present a breakout session on Training and Repertory for the Young Voice.
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 period 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.
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 June 20th (if available). Prepayment is required for vocal sessions and can be made during conference registration. Our general manager will manage her teaching schedule and accept payments. To pre-register for a vocal coaching session, please contact us at programs@musicasacra.com.
Rev. Richard Cipolla
We are delighted to have the Reverend Father Richard G. Cipolla as a plenary speaker for the 2022 Colloquium on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at St. Mary’s Parish.
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla is a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport and recently retired as Pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut.
His academic degrees include a Ph.D. in chemistry and a D. Phil. in theology from Oxford University. He is Chair Emeritus of the Classics Department of Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut.
His main interests are Liturgy, the thought of Saint John Henry Newman, and all things Italian. He is the Chaplain of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny, and a Chaplain of the Constantinian Order of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
He teaches courses in Adult Education in his local parish of St. Pius X in Fairfield, CT.
Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka
Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka joins the 2022 faculty again to direct the Women’s Chant Schola. In addition, she will present a breakout session on an introduction to chironomy (chant conducting). 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 hosts a weekly podcast entitled “Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast.”
David Hughes
David J. Hughes returns to the Colloquium faculty this year as director of a the Men’s Chant Schola.
David will also offer a breakout session on New Music. The new music seminar offers composers the opportunity to send a composition in advance, with the best compositions being sung during the breakout session by attendees.
He will serve as organist for Mass on Thursday, June 23. He also serves as our CMAA Master of Ceremonies. 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. 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.
Dr. William Mahrt
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 Choir, which sings Mass and Vespers in Gregorian chant on all the Sundays of the year at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, 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 direct the Intermediate Chant Choir for Men and Women. He will also present two breakout sessions on Chant Improvisation. The attendees of these sessions will also sing a Mass Proper using the techniques from the sessions. He will also be delivering a plenary talk during the week.
Rev. Andrew Menke
We are delighted that Fr. Andrew Menke will present a plenary talk for this year’s Sacred Music Colloquium Friday, June 24, 2022.
Father Andrew V. Menke serves as executive director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Father Menke is a priest of the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska and has previously served as associate director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship from May, 2015 until his appointment as executive director in 2017.
Father Menke holds a master’s of divinity from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was ordained a priest in 1999. After ordination, Fr. Menke served in various pastoral assignments in his diocese for eleven years, including five years as the diocesan master of ceremonies. During this time, he also completed a master’s degree in education administration at the University of Nebraska.
In 2010, he was invited for service to the Holy See as an official at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The office assists the pope in regulating and promoting the liturgy of the Catholic Church, especially the sacraments. During that time, Fr. Menke also earned a Licentiate in Sacred Liturgy at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy.
After serving in Rome for nearly five years, he returned to the United States to take up his current position at the bishops’ conference. The Divine Worship Secretariat oversees liturgical celebrations of the bishops at national meetings, the preparation and publication of liturgical books used in parishes across the country, leadership in liturgical formation and sacramental catechesis, and serves as a resource for bishops and diocesan liturgical commissions and offices of Worship seeking advice.
Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam
Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam will offer two breakout sessions on vocal pedagogy at the Colloquium for 2022.
For several years, Dr. Nam has been on the faculty of the CMAA Colloquium, sharing her expertise in vocal pedagogy. She has also served as a plenary speaker and as a director of polyphonic choirs.
In addition, private vocal coaching with Dr. Nam will again be made available at the CMAA Colloquium this year. 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 20th if any appointments are still available. Prepayment is required for vocal sessions, and are non-refundable. Our general manager will manage her teaching schedule and accept payments. To pre-register for a vocal coaching session, please contact us at programs@musicasacra.com.
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
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 pre-1955 Holy Week and another session on singing the three preface tones for the Extraordinary Form.
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.
William Riccio
William Riccio joins us again on staff for Colloquium 2020 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 2022.
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 joins the Colloquium 2022 faculty once again. He will present two breakout sessions on Semiology. As part of participation in those sessions, participants will prepare and sing one Chant Proper for the Mass on Wednesday, June 22.
Dr. Schaefer was professor of music and associate dean of the College of the Arts at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, FL. He was 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. top of page
Dr. Lucas Tappan
Lucas Tappan again joins us for the 2022 Colloquium faculty and will be directing a polyphony choir. He will also be presenting a breakout session during the week.
He graduated in 2004 from Benedictine College in Atchison, KS—where he studied organ with Fr. Blaine Schultz, OSB, and Dr. Ruth Krusemark—earning degrees in Theology and Music. He earned his Master of Music in Church Music (organ performance) in 2009 from the University of Kansas and in 2014 was granted a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Church Music (choral conducting) from the same institution. His teachers included Michael Bauer (organ), James Higdon (organ), and Paul Tucker (choral conducting).
In 2008, Dr. Tappan arrived at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Topeka, KS, and three years later founded the Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, an after-school choir program in the tradition of the EUROPEAN CATHEDRAL CHOIR SCHOOL.
In 2012, he was privileged to spend six weeks observing the training of choristers at the Madeleine Choir School at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, Utah—an experience that has greatly shaped the way he trains choristers. The Gentlemen and Children of the MPHM Schola Cantorum released their first CD in November 2014. In January of 2016, they traveled to Rome to sing at St. Peter’s Basilica—joining the Sistine Chapel Choir—alongside several other children’s choirs from the Americas and Europe for the first CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL FOR EPIPHANY, sponsored by the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra.
Dr. Tappan lives in Kansas with his wife and four children.
Dr. Susan Treacy
Dr. Susan Treacy, a member-at-large on the CMAA’s board of directors, will present two breakout sessions at the 2022 Colloquium.
Susan Treacy, Ph.D., is Professor of Music Emerita at Ave Maria University, from which she retired in July of 2019. Prior to AMU, she 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 activities have included the release of a book, The Music of Christendom: A History (San Francisco, 2021), a compact disc (Chants of Palm Sunday and Eastertide, with the AMU Scholæ Gregorianæ), an article, “Joseph Bonnet, Animateur of Gregorian Chant Congresses,” Sacred Music, Volume 147, No. 2 (Summer 2020), pp. 33-44, chapters, “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) and of Three Notch’d Road: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble.
From 2009-2018 Dr. Treacy was co-organizer and organizer of the Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian Chant Conference, which drew chant enthusiasts from all over Florida and beyond, and at which she gave 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 taught music history, art song literature, special topics courses, sacred music courses, and Gregorian chant; in addition, she directed the Women’s Schola Gregoriana and the Men’s Schola Gregoriana.
