Incoming: Summer 2026

by admin | Apr 28, 2026 | News

Feast of St. Mark, 2026

Dear friends of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music,

It’s been a watershed Spring term here at CISM. Thank you for being a part of it!

Our accreditor, WSCUC, has given final approval to our new 36-credit, summers-based Master of Sacred Music degree program, as well as our two 20-credit Post-Baccalaureate Certificates in Gregorian Chant and Sacred Choral Music. After a robust round of applications, interviews, and auditions, we are excited to welcome our inaugural cohort into the program, with 18 students from around the country. We also welcome to campus over 60 non-degree-seeking students from among our nearly 150 applicants for the summer program. Students’ time on campus will be supported through the launch of our Summer Chaplaincy Program for priests from around the country who will be on campus to celebrate daily sung Mass and vespers, as well as to hear confessions. We are welcoming 9 priests on campus from around the country and look forward to praying with them!

Our Chorister Program has soared through the semester, singing for Holy Thursday, Confirmations at Nativity Catholic Church, the Northern California festival of the American Federation of Pueri Cantores, and they are wrapping up the semester by singing for Pentecost. Dr. Berry directed nearly 200 young singers at the Northern California festival of AFPC at the Cathedral of St. Mary in San Francisco, after having directed the festival the week before in Washington D.C. at the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. We look forward to some special announcements about the academic year 2026–27 program, but in the meantime, don’t miss our August 3–7, 2026 Chant Camp!

It has been a busy semester of travel and workshops for me, starting with the annual meeting of Seminary Music Directors, held at St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston, Texas, and followed by the inaugural Oregon Sacred Music Colloquium at Mt. Angel Abbey and Seminary in Oregon, a seminar on the role of music in the life of the Christian in conjunction with Thomas Aquinas College and the Thomistic Arts Guild in Los Angeles, the Symposium on Transforming Culture at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and events for the monks, seminarians, and public at St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College in St. Benedict, Louisiana. The upcoming weeks will include Sacred Music Spokane, as well as serving alongside Dr. Berry and other esteemed colleagues at the annual Sacred Music Colloquium of the Church Music Association of America, this year at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I look forward to workshops in the upcoming academic year at Thomas Aquinas College (in Northfield, Massachusetts) and Ave Maria University, among others which will be announced soon.

Following the 225 participants who signed up for our November 2025 Spanish-language Sacred Music Study Day, CISM launched a Spanish-language workshop series online this semester, featuring two topics: the basics of Church teaching on sacred music (taught by Fernando Gil), and the basics of good vocal technique (taught by Sandra Bengochea). We look forward to expanding our offerings in Spanish in the upcoming academic year. Our English-language Sacred Music Study Day on Saturday, April 18th, also had a record attendance of nearly 200 participants. We look forward to welcoming Study Day participants back to campus again next year!

Our public lecture and concert series featured wonderful lectures by Sir James MacMillan and Dr. Margaret Hughes (Thomas Aquinas College), alongside a Mass celebrated on the Feast of the Annunciation with the Schola Cantorum of St. Patrick’s Seminary singing the Duruflé Messe cum Jubilo, accompanied by the masterful playing of Dr. Christopher Berry. The series was complemented by a fantastic line-up in our February 2026 online conference on the sung Divine Office, which drew nearly 200 participants from around the world for 13 fantastic talks on the Liturgy of the Hours. We’ve got a great online conference planned for January/February of 2027 – stay tuned for more details, as well as the announcement of the next Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit in June 2027.

We can’t wait to announce the big plans we have for the 2026–2027 academic year. In the meantime, we hope you stop by for a sung Mass (7 a.m.) or Vespers (5:30 p.m.) during our summer program. Stay tuned to our events page to see the complete schedule details. In the meantime, continue to keep up with us on Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast, still running strong with record downloads in its 8th season.

May God bless you richly as we together sing the praise of His Glory!

Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka
William P. Mahrt Chair in Sacred Music
Director, Catholic Institute of Sacred Music

Post-baccalaureate Certificates Approved by WASC

by admin | Apr 1, 2026 | News

MSM Approved by Accreditor

by admin | Feb 25, 2026 | News

The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music is pleased to announce that the WASC Senior College and University Commission has given final approval for our new Master of Sacred Music degree program! This approval reflects years of planning and institutional support for our Institute and our students, as well as that of generous donors who make tuition, room, and board affordable for students.

Applications are now closed for the inaugural Summer 2026 MSM cohort, but students can still apply to take courses as non-degree-seeking students. Applications for the MSM will reopen in November 2026.

Dr. Donelson-Nowicka at Inaugural Oregon Sacred Music Colloquium.

by admin | Feb 11, 2026 | News

The first annual Oregon Sacred Music Colloquium, January 30–31, 2026, drew over 100 singers to Mt Angel Abbey for two beautiful days of singing, learning, and praying. Participants learned a Gregorian ordinary, propers of the Mass in English and Latin, and a few motets as Dr. Donelson-Nowicka directed rehearsals and gave spiritual talks. She covered the basics of Gregorian chant notation and the modes, as well as the role of sacred music in the Church’s liturgy and the spiritual life. Participants attended Byzantine vespers and sang a final Mass with Bishop Thomas Hennen, the youngest ordinary in the U.S. recently ordained for the see of Baker. The event, sponsored by the Mt. Angel Institute, was organized by Dr. Myrna Keough and Fr. Anselm Flores and aims to continue to drawing singers together in response to Archbishop Alexander K. Sample’s fantastic pastoral letter on sacred music.

Martin Baker Joins CISM Summer Faculty

by admin | Feb 5, 2026 | News

The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music is pleased to announce that Martin Baker is joining its faculty and will serve as instructor for the Institute’s Organ Improvisation course this summer.

Martin Baker, formerly Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral (2000–2019) and President of the Royal College of Organists (2017–2019), is widely regarded as one of the foremost organists and improvisers of his generation. Winner of first prize in the Improvisation Competition at the St Albans International Organ Festival in 1997, he is renowned internationally for his command of extemporaneous playing in the service of liturgy and concert repertoire.

The course, held in person from July 20–24, 2026, is a graduate-level intensive seminar limited to six participants, competitively selected from among applicants. Designed for organists with a secure technical foundation seeking to develop a disciplined approach to improvisation, it emphasizes harmonic structure, formal coherence, and the elaboration of sacred melodies in liturgical contexts. Sessions include group instruction, assigned liturgical playing (Mass and Vespers) during the Institute’s Choral Institute, and individual lessons.

Further details, including application, are available here.

For inquiries, email us.

The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music offers advanced, intensive training in sacred music within a Catholic framework, welcoming both degree-seeking (MSM and post-baccalaureate certificates) and non-degree students.

Martin Baker – Biography

Born in Manchester in 1967, Martin Baker studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham’s School of Music and Downing College, Cambridge, then held positions at London’s Westminster and St Paul’s Cathedrals before being appointed to Westminster Abbey at the age of 24. In 2000 he returned to Westminster Cathedral as Master of Music, where for 20 years he was responsible for directing the world-renowned choir in its daily choral programme and busy schedule of concerts, tours and recordings.

Martin Baker is much sought after as an organist, playing frequent solo concerts in the UK and around the world. In addition to playing a wide repertoire he is known for his skill in improvisation, both liturgically and in concert, and was the winner of the Tournemire improvisation competition in St Albans in 1997. His first solo organ recording has just been released on the new Ad Fontes label from Buckfast Abbey, where he played the opening concert on the new Ruffatti organ in 2018. He teaches both repertoire and improvisation and has appeared on the juries of several international organ competitions.

He recently served as President of the Royal College of Organists and is an honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge.