FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music Announces the Inaugural John A. McInnes Choral Fellowship for Summer 2026
Menlo Park, CA – November 24, 2025 – Feast of St. John of the Cross – The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music (CISM) is pleased to announce the establishment of the John A. McInnes Choral Fellowship, a new initiative that will support twelve outstanding singers in the summer of 2026. Beginning in 2026, twelve John A. McInnes Choral Fellows will be selected to 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. Each Fellow will receive:
- A $1,000 stipend
- Up to $600 in travel allowance
- Room and board for the duration of the program
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.
Eligibility and Application Requirements
The fellowship is open to practicing Catholics of all experience levels, aged 25 years and older, including current and prospective CISM graduate students. Applicants must submit:
- Video recordings of themselves singing their voice part in two a cappella Renaissance motets of their choice
- Video recordings of themselves singing two Gregorian chants of their choice
Applications are due by February 15, 2026, with decisions announced on March 20, 2026.
Selected Fellows must arrive on campus no later than the morning of Saturday, July 18, 2026, and remain on or commute to campus through 7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 24, 2026; singers are free to stay on campus through Saturday morning (July 25th). Fellows are expected to prepare all the music for the Choral Institute on their own in advance of coming to campus. The daily repertoire includes two motets, five Gregorian propers, and Gregorian vespers, as well as three Gregorian and two polyphonic masses throughout the week.
“We are deeply grateful for the visionary generosity that has made the John A. McInnes Choral Fellowship possible,” said Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, founding director of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music. “This fellowship will enable twelve talented singers to lead one of the most intensive liturgical singing experiences available anywhere, while removing financial barriers that often prevent talented musicians from participating. Singers will have a chance to deepen their own formation and contribute to a landmark recording of new sacred music. We are profoundly grateful to the donor for his vision and trust in our mission.”
“Today, which is both the dies natalis of St. John of the Cross and the date of birth of John McInnes in 1931, the McInnes family wishes to thank Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka and the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music for inaugurating this unique scholarship program to prepare the next generation of sacred music practitioners for a life of service to the Church. We look forward to returning each July to spend time at St. Patrick’s Seminary enjoying the choral preparation and singing.”
A longer, more detailed obituary for John McInnes will follow in 2026 in time for the inaugural class to commence. In brief, John grew up in an age rapidly fading from our memory—a Great Depression era existence in which life-long frugality became a bulwark against uncertainty. John lost both his father and mother to cancer, his father in 1934, his mother in 1955, shortly before his civil marriage to his wife, Joan McInnes, who passed way December 25th, 2020. An only child, John maintained a reflexive reticence to speak about his family and personal life to all but his closest confidantes. Combined with his depression-era moderation, he was able to leave behind enough for posterity to enable this scholarship program to be created.
In his corporate career, he had seen the perishability of buildings and legacies. His final verbal wishes were to “make it something that endures.” Received into the Catholic Church on July 16th, 2020, John would endure declining health and the loss of control over his faculties common to many who enter their ninth decade. His late father, Archibald McInnes, served on World War I ships until his discharge. John would never return to his father’s homeland in Scotland but would finish his days watched over by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer in the Orkney Islands and the Discalced Hermits of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
St. John of the Cross’s commentary on the Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 39 includes this prescient passage:
“The ears of God signify the desire He hath that the soul should sing in perfect joy. And that this song may be perfect, the Bridegroom bids the soul to send it forth, and to let it sound in the clefts of the rock, that is in the transformation which is the fruit of the mysteries of Christ, of which I spoke just now.”
The donor added, “May this gift give voice to the aspirations of continuing generations in their service and a reminder to all of us that ‘The world is thy ship and not thy home.’”
For the application and full details, please visit https://catholicinstituteofsacredmusic.org/ensembles/mcinnes-fellowship/.
Media Contact: Sr. Mary Vianney Program Associate Catholic Institute of Sacred Music mary.vianney@stpsu.edu (650) 353-7153