Scott Atwood
Scott Atwood has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Duke University and a Masters in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He and his wife, Suzanne Fleming-Atwood are founders and co-directors of HARMONIA at Christ Our King-Stella Maris Catholic School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Atwood are former directors of the Charleston Children’s Chorus.
Mr. Atwood is also former director of VOX AETERNA and The Metropolitan Civic Orchestra. He has performed as a vocal soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (Monteverdi Vespers), and has been a recitalist on the Piccolo Spoleto L’Organo series and the St. Luke’s Chapel series at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is a published arranger and composer (Alliance Music Publications); he is also an experienced clinician, presenter, adjudicator, and consultant. Scott and Suzanne will present two breakout sessions regarding their success with children’s programs and choral repertory for children’s choirs.
Suzanne Fleming-Atwood
Suzanne Fleming-Atwood has a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from the Catholic University of America. She is the full-time music teacher at Christ Our King-Stella Maris Catholic School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, where she directs 4 choirs (grades 3-8), teaches General Music (grades 1-8), and presents an annual fully-staged musical.
For 8 years, Mrs. Atwood served as an adjunct voice faculty-member at the College of Charleston, where she also taught Music Theory Lab and Vocal Diction. In 2008, Mrs. Atwood performed as a Young Artist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Ton Koopman. She has also twice performed the role of Gretel in Charleston Symphony Orchestra productions of Hansel and Gretel, and she has performed frequently with Chamber Music Charleston. Mrs. Atwood studied Opera and Voice for one year at La Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan, Italy as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Mrs. Atwood is a sought after voice teacher and choral clinician and her students are selected for National and Regional Honor Choirs each year. Scott and Suzanne will present two breakout sessions regarding their success with children’s programs and choral repertory for children’s choirs.
Wilko Brouwers
Wilko Brouwers of the Netherlands will conduct one of the polyphonic choirs at XXV CMAA Summer Colloquium in Pittsburgh, the Refresher Women chant choir as well as present a conducting breakout session entitled “Choir Improvisation Techniques” He has taught both chant and polyphony at the CMAA Colloquia since 2004. This year the central work of his choir will be the de Campra Missa Ad Majorem Dei Gloria. There will also be motets by composers Mawby and Tallis.
Wilko Brouwers has conducted the Monteverdi Kamerkoor Utrecht since 1989 and the Strijps Kamerkoor Eindhoven since 2004. He is also currently the director of the Gregorian Schola of St. Benedictus Abbey in Achel, Belgium, a post he has held for the last eight years. His original compositions have been published and recorded.
As a music educator, Wilko Brouwers teaches choral conducting at the Utrecht Art Center in the Netherlands. Internationally, he has taught workshops on Gregorian chant in Auburn, Alabama, Still River, Massachusetts, and Pamplona, Spain. Brouwers is the author of Stepping Tones, a method of sight reading for elementary schools and children’s choirs based on the Ward Method. His Words with Wings: Gregorian Chant for Children in Twenty Lessons has been published by the Church Music Association of America, with both student and teacher’s workbooks and demonstration CDs. Brouwers also writes on chant, music education, vocal training, and choral repertoire for a number of Dutch and European music journals.
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 XXV Summer Colloquium. He has served on the faculty at several Summer Colloquia and we are pleased to welcome him again. The principal work for his choir will be the Missa pro defunctis (“Requiem”), composed by Fauré. He will also be conducting a two Byrd motets. He will also be presenting a choral techniques conducting breakout.
Horst Buchholz is Director of Sacred Music at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and the Archdiocese of St. Louis, as well as Artistic Director of St. Louis Cathedral Concerts. Prior to coming 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 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 as well as performed in several early music ensembles, Mary Ann now directs youth and adult choirs at St. Anne Catholic Church in San Diego. The two choirs sing Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony at weekly Sung and Solemn Masses in the Extraordinary Form (Traditional Latin form of the Mass), and by special engagement. Carr Wilson has been teaching children to sing Gregorian Chant for several years in a summer program called “Chant Camp”. She will share her techniques with attendees during a breakout session this year.
Rev. Richard G. Cipolla
We are delighted to have the Reverend Father Richard G. Cipolla, PhD, DPhil (Oxon) as a plenary speaker for the 2015 Colloquium.
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla is a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport and a Vicar at 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, where he still teaches an advanced course in Vergil, Dante and St. Augustine. His main interests are Liturgy, the thought of Blessed John Henry Newman, and all things Italian. He is the Co-ordinator of Sacra Liturgia 2015 with Jennifer Donelson.
Charles Cole
Charles Cole will direct the Men’s Schola chant course this summer at the XXV Colloquium in Pittsburgh, as well as the Beginner Motet polyphony choir. 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). In addition to the chant course, Cole will serve on a panel breakout session concerning Children’s Programs at a choir school. He will also serve as organist for the Mass on June 30th, a ferial Mass for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
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.
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. 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), the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City (2013) and Jerusalem (2013).
Since 2011 he has been a Gregorian Chant Director for the Church Music Association of America’s annual Colloquia. He was recently invited by James MacMillan to speak about Gregorian Chant at Musica Sacra Scotland’s inaugural conference. Last August, 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 2015 faculty again to teach breakout sessions for clergy and seminarian training and two breakout sessions:
Banished Repertoire: Sequences, Tropes, and Other Pre-Tridentine Chants
Extra Gregoriano Nulla Pulchritudo?: Beautiful Gems of Non-Gregorian Chant Repertories.
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 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) where she founded the Cor Immaculatae Schola Cantorum.
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. While in south Florida, Donelson directed the scholae cantorum at St. Michael the Archangel and Sts. Francis and Claire 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, recently 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, and the proceedings of the Gregorian Institute of Canada. 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, and is a co-organizer of the Sacra Liturgia USA 2015 conference in New York.
David Hughes
David J. Hughes returns to the Colloquium faculty again this year as director of the Chant Office Choir, which will be focused on the Divine Office. This choir will be primarily responsible for the Vespers Service on Thursday, July 2nd at St. Paul Cathedral. David will also lead the new music seminar again this year. The new music seminar will offer the opportunity for composers to hone their composing craft with other composers in three breakouts during the week. There will also be a new music reading session open to all participants, where the new music will be sung. In addition to these duties, David will also participate in a panel discussion about Parish Music Programs for children and will be the organist for the closing Mass on Saturday, July 4th, a Votive Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Hughes is Organist & Choirmaster at St. Mary Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he directs a professional choir for a weekly Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Missal of 1962), a volunteer choir for the Latin Mass according to the Roman Missal of 2002, and several children’s choirs. He led the St. Mary’s Student Schola to sing chant and Renaissance polyphony for the primary English-speaking Masses in August 2011 at World Youth Day in Madrid; the students also sang for pontifical Masses at the Cathedral of Toledo, Extraordinary Form Missae cantatae at the Carmelite monasteries in Avila and Madrid, and for the Latin Masses sponsored by Juventutem.
Active as a composer, and fascinated by the role that plainchant can play in the inspiration of new compositions, Mr. Hughes has written extensively for choir and organ. Recent premieres include Pascha jucundissimum and the Missa de Beata Maria. Film scoring credits include Navis Pictures’ St. Bernadette of Lourdes and several documentaries.
Mr. Hughes is a member of the board of the Church Music Association of America. He is director of music for the annual Roman Forum Summer Symposium at Lake Garda in the north of Italy.
Mr. Hughes’ 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, Mr. Hughes is a graduate of Yale College.
Dr. Ann Labounsky
We are very pleased to have Dr. Ann Labounsky on the faculty of CMAA’s Colloquium XXV. 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.
This year, Ann will be presenting a recital Monday, June 29th, 2015 on the newly-installed pipe organ at the Duquesne University chapel for our attendees. She will also be the organist for the Extraordinary Form (Missa Cantata) Colloquium Mass of the Precious Blood at 4:00 p.m. on July 1, 2015 at the Duquesne University Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
Additionally, Dr. Labounsky will be available to teach a limited number of private organ lessons during the week at the Duquesne Music school. On a first-come, first-served basis, individuals may schedule one-on-one organ lessons with her during registration for the special Colloquium rate of only $30/session. The thirty-minute sessions are limited, so make plans to schedule your session on June 29th, during Colloquium XXV registration. Prepayment will be required for organ sessions, which can be made during conference registration. Kyle Murphy will manage Ann’s teaching schedule and accept payments.
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’s organ compositions with the composer, and playing them for him on the organ at Sainte-Clotilde. In 1964, as Langlais’s student at the Schola Cantorum, she was awarded 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. For more information about Dr. Labounsky, visit her website.
Graduate and undergraduate music students may receive credit for their attendance at CMAA Colloquia and Chant Intensive courses.
Dr. William Mahrt
William Mahrt is Associate Professor and Director of Early Music Singers at the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies 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’s 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 conduct a course of chant improvisation, as well as delivering one of the plenary addresses. He will also teach two breakout sessions on chant modes.
Matthew J. Meloche
Matthew J. Meloche, Director of Sacred Music, Cathedral of SS Simon and Jude, Phoenix, AZ will be offering two breakouts for the priest, deacon and seminarian training during Colloquium XXV. Meloche has been named the CMAA instructor for our Winter course, Sing the Mass, a course for priests, deacons and seminarians (and those who work with them) in January, 2015.
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 15 years he has worked at parishes from 700 to 4500 families, doing everything from the Extraordinary Form to bringing Gregorian chant to Life Teen Masses.
He studied philosophy at the University of Windsor until deciding to move to the United States to do church music as a full-time profession. While in Canada he served as Associate Organist at St. Rose of Lima (east Windsor, Ontario), Director of Music at Most Precious Blood (central Windsor), Director and Principal Organist of the highly acclaimed music program at the Windsor Tridentine Mass Community (www.windsorlatinmass.org), and Principal Organist at the newly formed Immaculate Heart parish (central Windsor). After relocating to Columbus, Ohio he was Director of Music at Holy Spirit (east Columbus) and St. Joan of Arc in Powell (north west Columbus).
In 2012, desiring to escape snow forever, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona to become Director of Sacred Music at St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Surprise (west Phoenix). When composer Adam Bartlett decided to leave Phoenix to work at the Mundelein Seminary and continue his work as a composer, Matthew was asked to take his place as Director of Sacred Music at the Cathedral. Matthew has taught dozens of priests and deacons to sing their parts of the Mass over the years. He has led retreats and missions, delivered academic lectures and practical workshops, and performed organ concerts throughout the United States and Canada.
Jeffrey Morse
Jeffrey Morse
Jeffrey Morse will serve on the Colloquium XXV faculty as the director of the Womens Schola Chant choir. In addition, he will also participate in a panel discussion on parish music programs for children during one of the breakout sessions. He will also again lead participants in a morning solfege warmup each morning.
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 however 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 not only trained in Chant but also in singing the treble parts of the polyphony with the choir every Sunday and major feast. The fruits of this were not only beneficial for the singing of services at the parish, adding to the beauty and solemnity of the liturgies, but promises 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 looked upon 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
Private vocal coaching with Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam will again be made available at the CMAA Colloquium this year. If you have wanted to study with a truly gifted vocal teacher, this is your opportunity, as those who studied with her last summer can attest.
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 make plans to schedule your session on June 29th, during Colloquium XXV registration. Prepayment will be required for vocal sessions, which can be made during conference registration. Kyle Murphy will manage Dr. Nam’s teaching schedule and accept payments.
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, R. V. Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Orff’s Carmina BuranaDue 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 Teacher’s Association of America 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 Thódore Gouvy”. She has been giving a lecture recital of Gouvy’s songs at various places including “Hans Eisler Musik Hochshule in Berklin, Germany, Eastern Michigan University, Kent State University and University of Tennessee, Knoxville and also during The American Liszt Society Conference in Portland, Oregon, in May 2012.
“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.” Glenn Giffin, The Denver Post
“A clear, well-supported voice that moves easily in its registers. …..extra care in projecting words.” Glenn Giffin, The 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..” Max Götz, Paasauer Neue Presse, Waldkirchen, Germany
Michael Olbash
Michael Olbash, CAGO/ChM., an accomplished musician and a Catholic homeschooling father of four, holds degrees in sacred music from Harvard University (B.A., cum laude) and St. Joseph’s College (M.Mus.), as well as the Colleague and Choirmaster certificates from the American Guild of Organists, which recently awarded him both the Choirmaster Prize and the S. Lewis Elmer Award in 2012. He has presented lectures and seminars at the local, regional, and national level on a variety of topics such as conducting technique, Gregorian chant, and the liturgical use of handbells. He currently serves as the Organist & Choirmaster at St. Adelaide’s Parish in Peabody, Massachusetts, where he directs three scholae in the singing of the weekly High Mass in the Extraordinary Form, as well as a Parish Choir and Treble Choir. He is the founding director of the Blackstone Valley Catholic Youth Choir, which released its premiere recording “Clothed with the Sun” in 2013 and completed a tour of Connecticut and New York in 2014. An advocate of sacred music for children, he serves on the Board of Directors for the American Federation Pueri Cantores, assisting the AFPC with choir festivals around the country.
Michael will be sharing his expertise in working with children’s chorister programs during the panel discussion on choir schools on the Thursday breakout session.
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.
Because of his association with Msgr. Richard Schuler, he was introduced to the Sacred Music Colloquiums and has attended most of the Colloquiums 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 parish, St Paul, Minn. 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, Maryland, and an M.A. in Education from Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J.. 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 Parish of Mater Ecclesiae, Berlin, N.J. (materlatin.org). Mater Ecclesiae is 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 of Ave Maria University, 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.
Very Rev. Jonathan Robinson
Very Rev. Jonathan Robinson is the superior of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Toronto, and rector of St. Philip’s Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, and a License in Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He is former professor and chairman of philosophy at McGill University, and the author of numerous articles and books, including Duty and Hypocrisy in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind, Spiritual Combat Revisited, and The Mass and Modernity.
He has taught at the Universities of Edinburgh and McGill, and given seminars at Oxford and Fordham. He also has some training in the civil law of Quebec. Then, when he was first ordained he was Cardinal Leger’s English-speaking secretary in Montreal. During the years at McGill, he worked with the Brothers of the Good Shepherd, wrote a book on Hegel and worked towards the founding of an Oratory of St Philip Neri in Canada.
Then for the last thirty-four years the Oratory has been in charge of two parishes in Toronto, and he has had the over-all direction of the liturgical life in both places. We are thrilled to have him speak to the Church Music Association of America at this year’s Colloquium on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
John Robinson
We welcome John Robinson to the Colloquium faculty this year as the director of a polyphony choir. His choir will be singing the Palestrina Missa Lauda Sion as its principal work as well as motets by Josquin and Kwasniewski. In addition, he will be a member of a panel discussion on choir schools, sharing his experience on what makes these programs successful.
John Robinson is the Director of Music at St Paul’s Church, Harvard Square. There, he is responsible for the training and direction of the choir of boys and men in daily sung Mass, and oversees thriving Church and School Music departments. In serving the liturgy at St Paul’s Church, the choir performs music ranging from Gregorian Chant, to Modern and Contemporary repertoire. Most recently, the choir’s first album, “Christmas in Harvard Square” has debuted on the Decca label to critical acclaim, both nationally and internationally.
John’s days as a choir boy have left in him an abiding commitment to encouraging singing in boys and girls from every walk of life. John sees young singers as our future, and seeks to offer them dedication, and support.
As an organist, John’s recordings are available on the Priory, Hyperion, Herald, York Ambisonic and Syrinx labels. His recordings are also available from iTunes, Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, and many other outlets. He has recently recorded a DVD of solo organ music from Canterbury Cathedral, in England.
Having initially been a chorister and organ pupil of Dr Roy Massey at Hereford Cathedral, John became Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral and subsequently at St John’s College Cambridge, where he worked with both Dr. Christopher Robinson and Dr. David Hill. Whilst at Cambridge, he accompanied the world famous choir of St John’s College on tours, broadcasts and recordings as well as in the daily round of sung services in the College Chapel. At Cambridge he won first prize in the Brian Runnett Organ competition, and in the Plymouth National Young Organists’ Competition. On graduating he was appointed Assistant Organist of Carlisle Cathedral, and subsequently Assistant Organist of Canterbury Cathedral.
Extensive tours both as Organist and Director have led to appearances in such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall, La Cite de La Musique in Paris, St John’s Smith Square, King’s College Cambridge, Washington National Cathedral, Fourth Presbyterian Chicago, St Bartholomew’s New York and other venues across Europe and America. He has been broadcast on Radios 3, 4, Classic FM and Pipe Dreams, as well as on several television networks. He has recorded with Hyperion, Priory, Syrinx, Herald and York Ambisonic. Solo recordings include a critically-acclaimed recording of English Romantic organ music from Carlisle Cathedral with Priory, a recording of Baroque organ and clavichord music with Syrinx, the complete organ works of S. S. Wesley with Priory and most recently a DVD from Canterbury Cathedral in Priory’s English Cathedrals series, which also includes Kings College Cambridge, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and St Paul’s Cathedral, London.
Jonathan Ryan
We are fortunate indeed to have Jonathan Ryan, Concert Organist, on the CMAA’s Colloquium XXV faculty this year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ryan has been on the faculty of the Colloquium for several years, sharing his extensive experience with Roman Catholic liturgy with Colloquium attendees as a director of various choirs, as a breakout presenter and as an organist. Jonathan will direct the Men’s Chant Refresher Choir this year. His talents will again be put to use greatly this summer as he organizes the organ program for the week’s liturgies.
Jonathan will also present a Masterclass as an organ breakout session during the week. Additionally, he will be available to teach a limited number of private organ lessons during the week at the Duquesne Music school. On a first-come, first-served basis, individuals may schedule one-on-one organ lessons with Ryan during registration for the special Colloquium rate of only $30/session. The thirty-minute sessions are limited, so make plans to schedule your session on June 29th, during Colloquium XXV registration. Prepayment will be required for organ sessions, which can be made during conference registration. Kyle Murphy will manage Jonathan’s teaching schedule and accept payments.
Jonathan Ryan enjoys a multifaceted career as a concert artist, church musician, and pedagogue. Among the few organists distinguished with six First Prize awards at major international and national competitions, he has emerged as one of North America’s premier young concert artists, and is represented by Karen McFarlane Artists. As a special treat, Ryan will present an Organ Recital at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh on Friday, July 3rd at 8:30 pm.
His solo performances have taken him to celebrated venues across the USA and Europe, including the Nicolaikirche in Leipzig, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Cathédrale St-André in Bordeaux, the Fraumünster in Zürich, the inaugural series of the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, CA, and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists and Organ Historical Society.
His début recording, A Cathedral’s Voice (Raven 941), was released in 2012 to critical acclaim, including a five-star review in the London-based Choir & Organ.
As a church musician, he has held positions at St. James Cathedral and St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, IL, St. Anne Church in Rochester, NY, and currently serves on the staff of the English cathedral-modeled music program of Christ Church in Greenwich, CT, where he directs the church’s semi-professional adult choir, and works with the Choir of Men & Boys and the Girls Choir. Jonathan holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM) and the Eastman School of Music (MM), as well as the Fellow (FAGO) and Choirmaster (ChM) professional certifications from the American Guild of Organists. To find out more about Jonathan, his upcoming performances, and media, visit his website at www.jonathan-ryan.com.
Dr. Edward Schaefer
Edward 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’Ëcole 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 Loan.
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, published by Hillenbrand, and auther/editor of Missa Cantata: A Notated Sacramentary, Cantáta Evangélia: A Notated Book of Gospels, and numerous articles on various aspects of sacred music.
Scott Turkington
Scott Turkington, of Holy Family Church and Holy Family Academy in Minneapolis, MN, joins the Colloquium faculty again for 2015. He will direct the chant fundamentals choir (men and women) for the 2015 Colloquium. In addition, he will teach breakouts on chironomy and participate in a panel discussion about parish music programs for children.
Prior to joining the staff at Holy Family in 2013, Turkington served as principal organist and choirmaster of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston, SC. Until 2010, he served as organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist in Stamford, Connecticut, where he conducted a choir in a program of weekly polyphonic Mass settings and Gregorian chant. Before accepting the position at St. John’s in 1998, he was Assistant Organist and Conductor at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. While at the National Shrine, he played for over 500 services each year, and appeared on live national television dozens of times.
He has been the director of the annual workshop in sacred music sponsored by the St. Cecilia Schola Cantorum.[2] He has been Music Director at the Church of the Covenant in Boston; Music Teacher and Organist at St. Paul’s Choir School in Harvard Square, under Theodore Marier. A native of Minneapolis, he studied music at the University of Minnesota, the Boston Conservatory of Music and The Catholic University of America. His former teachers include Heinrich Fleischer, Phillip Steinhaus, and George Faxon.
In frequent demand as an organ recitalist, he has played innumerable recitals in the Northeast, having made his New York debut at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He has performed for a national convention of the Organ Historical Society, and is a featured performer on the Organ Historical Society’s compact disc, Organs of Baltimore. In 1994, his choir performed for Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
He is editor of A Gregorian Chant Masterclass by Theodore Marier, published by the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. This book and its companion CD feature the Stamford Schola Gregoriana and the nuns of Regina Laudis, both conducted by Turkington.
Dr. Paul Weber
We welcome Dr. Paul Weber who will again be on the faculty for the CMAA Summer Colloquium this year. He will serve as organist for our liturgies on Thursday, the Ordinary Form Votive Mass of the Holy Eucharist, as well as the Extraordinary Form Vespers of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Both liturgies will be at St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh. He will also offer an organ Masterclass during the week.
Additionally, he will be available to teach a limited number of private organ lessons during the week at the Duquesne Music school. On a first-come, first-served basis, individuals may schedule one-on-one organ lessons with Paul during registration for the special Colloquium rate of only $30/session. The thirty-minute sessions are limited, so make plans to schedule your session on June 29th, during Colloquium XXV registration. Prepayment will be required for organ sessions, which can be made during conference registration. Kyle Murphy will manage Weber’s teaching schedule and accept payments.
Paul Weber is Organist and Director of Sacred Music at the Church of St. Martin of Tours. in Louisville, Kentucky, where he directs two semi-professional choirs for weekly choral Masses in the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms. Previously he was on the faculty of Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he founded the BA Program in Sacred Music and directed the university ensembles. He was also organist and associate director for the Latin Mass community at St. Boniface Church in Pittsburgh.
As a conductor, he has directed the Schola Cantorum Franciscana throughout the Pittsburgh area and led the Franciscan University Chorale and Franciscan Chamber Orchestra in performances of major works, including Faure’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Rheinberger’s Stabat Mater and Britten’s Ceremony of Carols.
Dr. Weber has been heard as an organist throughout the United States and in Europe and holds prizes from national and international competitions, including the Erfurt (Germany) International Organ Competition and the Arthur Poister National Organ Competition. Recent performances include concerts for the national conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Church Music Association of America and on the L’Organo concert series at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
His articles have been published in Sacred Music and The American Organist. A graduate of Lawrence University (BM) and Yale University (MM, MMA, DMA), his teachers include Frank Rippl, Miriam Duncan, Wolfgang Rübsam, Martin Jean, Thomas Murray and William Porter (improvisation).
