St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, California
Catholic Institute
of Sacred Music
Summer 2025 Graduate Course Application Now Open
Go to the Summit this Summer!
July 1–4, 2025 | St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, California
The Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit gathers together Catholics who love Christ, the Church, and the Church’s sacred liturgical tradition for:
- the solemn celebration of the Mass and Vespers;
- insightful talks on the sacred liturgy, liturgical formation, and the sacred liturgical arts;
- and fellowship to build fraternal bonds through which the clergy, religious, and lay faithful can support the Church and one another in their promotion of the sacred liturgy.
Music at the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit will be provided by a 16-voice professional choir of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music, under the direction of Prof. Christopher Berry and Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, joined by organist Dr. Aaron James.
2025 Sacred Music Study Day
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- Rehearsals featuring music you can take home to your congregations: a Mass ordinary, hymns to Our Lady, approachable and beautiful choral music
- The opportunity to learn music we can sing together at Mass
- Workshops offering tips on developing and teaching healthy vocal technique
- Solemn Mass, sung by participants, celebrated by His Excellency, Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco
- Catechesis on the role sacred music in the spiritual life
- An opportunity to go to confession
- Lunch, refreshments, and fellowship with area musicians
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- Parish music directors
- Parish choir members
- Cantors
- Clergy
Singers and music directors of all ability levels will find the event enriching and worthwhile.
$50 per person / Parish group rate $40 per person for 4 or more people
Registration deadline: Friday, May 2nd
Catch up on Our Podcast!
In the thick of season 7, we’re nearing 100 episodes of wisdom, scholarly insight, and practical advice about the Church’s sacred music.
Check out our latest episodes:
- Episode 1 – Building a Great School & Parish Sacred Music Program in a Rural Community – with Kelsey LaCour
- Episode 2 – How Did the Parts of the Mass Ordinary Get Arranged into Groups in the Kyriale? – with Dr. Andrew Kirkman
- Episode 3 – Singing the Credo: Historical Origins and Development – with Dr. Harrison Russin
- And more!
You can listen on your favorite app and subscribe to the show!
The podcast is distributed via Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, and Podbean.
Requiescat in pace—Dr. William Mahrt (1939–2025)
The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music commends the soul of treasured faculty member, Dr. William Mahrt, to the hands and mercy of God. Beloved by students and colleagues alike, he will surely be missed. We are grateful for our time with him, and all he taught us will remain in our souls, minds, and hearts. May he rest in peace!
Read about Dr. Mahrt’s remarkable life and work here in his obituary.
A Fantastic Summer 2024!
From Our Director’s Desk
Dear friends of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music,
It was a tremendous second summer term here at the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music!
From our over 200 applicants, we were able to offer enrollment to over 90 students in our 9 filled-to-capacity courses.
Students in History and Principles of Sacred Music took a deep dive into the Church’s treasury of sacred music, from its roots in Jewish tradition and patristic application of ideas from classical antiquity, through to the modern repertory and legislative documents. Student teachers tackled the first level of the Ward Method in our Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children Course, offering great teaching demos every day of the class. Singers in Introduction to Gregorian Chant received a systematic overview of the spirituality, genres, and rhetorical style of chant, and the elements of a fully sung Mass, while intensively studying neumes and chant modality and the rhythmic approach of Dom Mocquereau. Participants sang and conducted three pieces of chant on their own for the final exam, and the week concluded with the class singing a Votive Mass of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Dr. William Mahrt presented an insightful overview of the style, structure, and Chants of the Mass Proper, while Dr. Charles Weaver helped students navigate the most important source manuscripts, along with their different styles of notation and implications for rhythm in chant. The 34 singers in our Choral Institute sang daily Lauds, Mass, and Vespers under the direction of Prof. Christopher Berry and Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, with the week culminating in singing Palestrina’s Missa Æterna Christi Munera and Howells’ Mass in the Dorian Mode, alongside motets from the five composers in Dr. Frank La Rocca’s Composition Seminar. The term finished out with a fruitful dialogue of the chant performance practice approaches of Eugène Cardine (Semiology, taught by Dr. Edward Schaefer) and Dom Mocquereau (Chironomy), including a sung Mass on Thursday morning of the courses featuring singing in both styles.
We can’t wait to share with you some wonderful photographs, audio, and video from the summer, and we’re already looking ahead to Summer 2025!
Please join us this academic year 2024-25 at our workshops, conferences, lectures, and concerts. Spots fill quickly—join our mailing list here so you don’t miss out on anything!
Please remember us, our students, and our work in your prayers! All for the praise of His glory!
In the heart of Our Lady,
Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, Director
Missed an Event?
Check out a video archive of our previous events.
Our Mission
Founded in 2022, the mission of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music is to draw souls to Jesus Christ through the beauty of sacred music and the liturgy.
The Institute offers a series of graduate-level coursework for credit, designed to help church musicians and clergy better to know and love the Church’s treasury of sacred music and her teachings on sacred music. Our goal is to equip students with the theological, philosophical, and historical knowledge, as well as the practical skills (singing, playing, conducting, composing, organizing, fundraising) necessary to build excellent sacred music programs in parishes and schools. We aim to help others revitalize the faith of Catholics and instill vitality in parish and school life through a vibrant sacred music program.
We are committed to a faithful and generous service of the Church. We cultivate fidelity, resiliency, a healthy sense of creativity, and selflessness within our student body and faculty as characteristics of our service as we labor together in the vineyard of the Lord to bring in a rich harvest.
St. Patrick’s Seminary, in Menlo Park, California
News
Summer Organ Literature Course – Podcast Special
Learn more about this summer's Organ Literature course from Prof. Christopher Berry in his recent appearance on CISM's podcast, Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast. Listen here. He outlines...
Interview with Dr. Donelson-Nowicka in Adoremus Bulletin
The Adoremus Bulletin has published an article which features an interview with our director, Dr. Donelson-Nowicka, about the upcoming Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit. Read the article here....
Prayer upon the Death of Pope Francis
Upon the death of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music joins all the faithful in prayers for the repose of his soul, and for the will of God to be done in the...
Know a Priest Who’d Like to Come to the Liturgy Summit? Scholarship Available.
A Holy Week Gift for Priests! A generous donor has enabled us to offer 10 $100 discounts to priests. Once the 10 discounted registration fees are gone, we will close this coupon. You must be a...
Sacred Liturgy Summit in the News
We're gearing up for the July 1–4, 2025 Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit here at St. Patrick's Seminary, with CISM providing the fantastic chant and polyphony which will play an integral role in...
Catch Dr. Donelson-Nowicka on Relevant Radio!
What is the place of well-ordered music in life? What are the effects of disordered music? Dr. Donelson-Nowicka discussed the answers to these questions on the Drew Mariani Show earlier this week on...