NEW Degree and Certificate Programs!

John A. McInnes Choral Fellowship

A paid choral fellowship for 12 outstanding singers in CISM’s Summer Graduate Choral Institute

The John A. McInnes Choral Fellowship was established to encourage twelve outstanding Catholic singers to exercise their musical gifts for the glory of God in the context of the sacred liturgy.

Fellows will serve as section leaders for the CISM Choral Institute, an intensive week-long graduate course held July 20–24, 2026, under the direction of CISM faculty Prof. Christopher Berry and Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka.

During the Institute, participants sing daily Lauds, Mass, and Vespers, immersing themselves in the Church’s living tradition of sacred music.

In addition to their liturgical leadership, the 2026 Choral Fellows will participate in a professional recording session featuring one new work from each of the five composers enrolled in the concurrent Composition Seminar under the direction of Dr. Frank La Rocca.

Each Fellow receives:

• A $1,000 stipend
• Up to $600 in travel allowance
• Room and board for the duration of the program

Application Deadline: Sunday, February 15th

New this Fall:

CISM’s Chorister Program for Young Singers

Are you looking for a positive, fun, and joyful environment for your student to pray, learn his or her Catholic faith, develop musical talents, meet great friends, and develop virtues such as patience and resiliency?

The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music Chorister Program is committed to inspiring young singers through a comprehensive program that emphasizes musical excellence and spiritual growth. Our mission is to cultivate a love for sacred music, guiding young voices to reach their full potential while instilling values of discipline, teamwork, and artistic expression.

Open to all students ages 8–17, the Chorister Program offers weekly training in:

An Amazing Summer 2025!

Wonderful students, fantastic speakers, excellent faculty, hundreds of guests
Praying, learning, singing—all for the glory of God!

From the Director’s Desk

Feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim, 2025

Dear friends of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music,

Thank you for being part of an amazing summer 2025 here at the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music. It’s not yet over, but I wanted to write to you with an update.

We welcomed hundreds of guests here at the beginning of the month for the inaugural Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit. Anchored by the celebration of solemn pontifical Masses and Vespers, celebrated by Cardinals Sarah and O’Malley, Archbishop Cordileone, Bishops Fernandes and Barber, and Abbots Benedict Nivakoff and Marc Crilly, participants encountered God’s presence in sacred liturgies celebrated with utmost care, reverence, and beauty. CISM provided music for each of the liturgies with its all-professional choir, drawn from students and colleagues across the U.S. and directed by Prof. Berry and Dr. Donelson-Nowicka. We heard fantastic talks from over a dozen leading prelates, theologians, and artists, and we developed friendships and collegiality over meals and working sessions.  Stay tuned for the book-format publication of the Summit’s addresses!

Earlier in the summer, CISM provided music for the Artists Retreat of the Benedict XVI Institute, held here on the campus of St. Patrick’s Seminary. Our musicians sang and played music by Fauré, Charpentier, Hassler, Peeters, and Josquin, of course as well as all of the Gregorian chant propers, and some lovely English chant adaptations for Vespers by Dr. Richard Skirpan.

Our summer graduate session moved into full-swing following the Summit with 9 classes in 3 weeks. Students in the Choral Institute sang the Gregorian propers for Mass, two motets per day, a Mass by du Mont, the Byrd Mass for Four Voices, the Rheinberger Mass in E-flat (JWV57), as well as Gregorian Vespers and English Morning Prayer under the direction of Prof. Christopher Berry and Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka. Composition Seminar students, under the tutelage of Dr. Frank La Rocca studied species counterpoint, and shared their own compositions with each other throughout the week, with all students hearing their compositions rendered by the Choral Institute students at the end of the week. Dr. Christoph Tietze‘s Organ Improvisation class improvised processional music for Mass and vespers, antiphon and hymn incipits, as well as an improvised accompaniment to the Mass in the First Royal Tone of Henri du Mont. We welcomed the Knights and Dames of Malta, along with many other guests for the final Mass of the week.

In the second week of classes, Introduction to Gregorian Chant students, taught by Dr. Donelson-Nowicka, developed their abilities to sing, teach, and direct music for Mass, focusing on Mass XI (Orbis factor) and the Gregorian propers of the Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart, while also learning to sing Lauds in English-language adaptations of chant. In Organ Literature, taught by Prof. Christopher Berry, students covered the monuments of the organ repertoire with a special focus on the development of organ building techniques which buttressed developments in repertory, as well as understanding this music in the context of the Catholic liturgical services. In Vocal Pedagogy, taught by Prof. Sandra Bengochea, students received in-depth instruction on the anatomy and physiology of the vocal tract, and discussed teaching techniques which build healthy technique, as well as those approaches which are detrimental to the voice. On Wednesday evening, some of our students were invited to sing for a solemn Mass on the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel at the Carmelite Monastery of Cristo Rey in San Francisco. Afterward we enjoyed a meal at nearby Star of the Sea parish before heading back to the seminary to get some sleep for another great day of classes.

The final week’s classes included Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children, in which students learned to teach the first level of the Ward method with Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, concluding the week with a 5th teaching demonstration by students before they headed home to finish their final projects. Two fantastic seminars in chant also filled the hallways with singing. Dr. Charles Weaver‘s seminar on the modes and hexachordal solfège had students practicing the Guidonian hand all week, both in chant and polyphonic practice, as well as looking at some of the complexities of understanding modality in the Gregorian repertoire. Dr. Joseph Dyer‘s seminar on Old Roman Chant drew together historical and manuscript studies, as well as secondary literature, in understanding theories of transmission of repertoire and the relationship of the “Old Roman” repertoire to the Gregorian. Students enjoyed preparing a sung Mass for the feast of St. James, featuring music from the Codex Calixtinus, and are now at home wrapping up final projects, papers, and exams in the next weeks.

We are now in the final stages of preparation for the launch of CISM’s Chorister Program. The program launches with an August 4–8 Chant Camp in which we’ll welcome 80 young singers to campus for a week of sung Masses, catechesis, vocal training, and fun! We will soon be posting the registration page for the academic-year chorister program, which starts Tuesday, September 9th.

Major Announcements of the Summer

The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music was thrilled to announce, earlier this summer, the appointment of Christopher Berry as Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University. Berry will also serve as Organist and Director of Sacred Music at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park, California, and as the Director of CISM’s newly-founded Chorister Program for young singers in grades 3+. Please join us in welcoming Professor Berry and his family to California!

We have also recently welcomed to our staff Sr. Mary Vianney Owens, who will serve as Program Associate and Assistant to the Director. Welcome, Sister!

We are also thrilled to announce the new Master of Sacred Music (MSM) degree program and Post-baccalaureate Certificates in Gregorian Chant and Sacred Choral Music, starting summer 2026, pending accreditation approval from WSCUC. We will have much more information forthcoming about these programs soon. Please stay tuned!

Additionally, we have marked many of the dates for the huge list of 2025–2026 offerings, both online and in-person, on our calendar, and we’ll be publishing more details on workshops, public lectures, and concerts in August. Check out our calendar here.

I hope to see you sometime soon at one of the many offerings of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music!

Finally, please know that we count on your prayers and support! Please pray that our work continue to grow and flourish, supporting musicians all over the world in their work of singing to the praise and glory of God almighty, and redounding to the sanctification and edification of souls.

All for the praise of His glory!
Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, Director

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Check out a video archive of our previous events.