Events

Upcoming Events

St. Patrick’s Seminary Schola Cantorum Advent & Christmas Concert

Fall 2024 Public Lecture and Concert Series

Join the Schola Cantorum of St. Patrick’s Seminary in the beautiful seminary chapel as they sing music for Advent and Christmas, new and old, including beloved carols, Gregorian chant, and seasonal choral music. 

Building Organ Repertoire for Sunday Parish Use

Spring 2025 Online Workshops Begin

Avoiding Church Musician Burnout

2025 CISM Graduate Student Continuing Education Seminar

Working for the Church can be hard, but Our Lord needs laborers who remain close to Him, with a loving heart and resilient spirit. We’ll discuss some of the challenges of serving God through a life devoted to sacred music, and talk about ways to avoid getting burned out. 

For current CISM students only. Live via Zoom, with no archival access available

Lecture, Abbot Benedict Nivakoff, O.S.B. (Abbey of San Benedetto in Monte, Norcia, Italy)

2024–2025 Public Lecture and Concert Series

Et ut Musica in Convivio Vini (Eccl. 49:2): Music and Wine for Monks, Musicians, and Men of Good Will

This talk will bring to light the epistle text from the July 11th feast of St. Benedict and ask and answer some important questions: How did the saint who encourages abstinence from wine and a life without laughter come to be described with a text that talks of music and wine? How can St Benedict help the musician work with priests who seem not to understand music? How can St Benedict help priests and seminarians to work with musicians?

Sancta Maria Hall (In-person only), St. Patrick’s Seminary, Reception following the In-Person Event

Ward Method Check-up

2025 CISM Graduate Student Continuing Education Seminar

For students trained in the Ward Method level 1 through the “Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children” course, we’ll check in on how your teaching is going, discuss how to address challenges, and fine tune our pedagogical techniques in demonstration activities.

For current CISM students only. Live via Zoom, with no archival access available

Making Great Liturgical Aids

2025 CISM Graduate Student Continuing Education Seminar

Need some fresh ideas or typesetting help? Join typesetter extraordinaire Matthew Fong and Dr. Donelson-Nowicka for a deep dive on software, typefaces, music notation, translation sources, and more.

For current CISM students only. Live via Zoom, with no archival access available

Musicæ Sacræ Disciplina – Directed Reading Group

Topic #2 of Spring 2025 Workshop Series

Mondays, February 20 & 27, March 3 – 5:30 – 6:30 p.m., PST

Join Drs. William Mahrt and Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka as we read Pius XII’s 1955 encyclical on sacred music. In addition to the content of the document, we’ll discuss the background for the document, the impact it had on the liturgical movement, and its implications for the practice and understanding of sacred music today. 

Live via Zoom

Planning a Local Sacred Music Workshop

2025 CISM Graduate Student Continuing Education Seminar

Want to plan an event to help people in your area better know and love the Church’s treasury of sacred music and Her teachings about it? Join the CMAA’s Janet Gorbitz and Dr. Donelson-Nowicka as we get you started on planning your own workshop by discussing lead time, facilities, schedule, personnel, catering and hospitality, supplies, and programming music for the event. 

For current CISM students only. Live via Zoom, with no archival access available

Clara Gerdes Bartz – Organ Recital

2024–2025 Public Lecture and Concert Series

Tota Pulchra Es: Chant-based Organ Music Honoring the Mother of God

Complete program forthcoming.

Clara Gerdes Bartz holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music. She has served as organist and music director at a variety of churches around the New York City area including St Bartholomew’s Church, Park Avenue and The Church of Most Holy Redeemer-Nativity. She has served as instructor of organ at Westminster Choir College and is frequently featured as solo recitalist in venues around the country.

Main Chapel (In-person only), St. Patrick’s Seminary, Reception following the In-Person Event

Spring Workshop Series – Topic # 3

Topic #3 of Spring 2025 Workshop Series

Mondays, March 10, 24, 31 – 5:30 – 6:30 p.m., PDT

Topic TBA

Live via Zoom

Catholic Missionaries, Gregorian Chant, and Local Music in German East Africa, 1891–1961
Lecture, Anna Maria Busse Berger (UC, Davis)

O2024–2025 Public Lecture and Concert Series

The most important German missionaries in German East Africa arrived from the Benedictine monastery St. Ottilien in 1891. They argued early on that African music was similar to medieval music, and thus introduced Gregorian chant with great success in all of their mission stations. One of their missionaries, P. Meinulf Küsters, a trained anthropologist and curator at the Munich Anthropology Museum, was in close contact with the comparative musicologists Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Marius Schneider and made recordings for the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv. When Schneider published his Geschichte der Mehrstimmigkeit (History of Polyphony) in 1934 he sent it to Küsters in Tanganyika. A few years later, another priest, Jean Baptist Wolf, found the book in the library, compared Schneider’s transcriptions to the Graduale Romanum, noticed the similar tonal language, and introduced the chants which were most similar to Ngoni songs into the church service. In short, we have a conscious effort by a missionary to imitate local music from a study of transcriptions of this very same local music made a few years earlier by a comparative musicologist in Berlin (who had never been to the area) of the very same music he is surrounded with.

Sancta Maria Hall, St. Patrick’s Seminary, In-person & Online via Livestream, Reception following the In-person Event

Spring Workshop Series – Topic # 4 

Topic #4 of Spring 2025 Workshop Series

Monday, April 7 – 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., PDT

Topic TBA

Live via Zoom

Tenebrae: The Church’s “Office of the Dead” for Christ Crucified
Lecture, James Monti (Dunwoodie, New York)

2024–2025 Public Lecture and Concert Series

From at least as far back as the sixth century, the Church has begun her daily worship on the
three days of the Easter Triduum with a unique solemnization of the Divine Office known as
Tenebrae, a sung liturgy hewn from the Scriptural prophecies of the Passion to form a veritable
“Office of the Dead” in which the Church mourns the death of Christ. The sacred texts of this
office inspired a priceless treasury of plainchant and later a vast corpus of polyphonic settings,
particularly for the Scriptural centerpiece of Tenebrae, the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Our
purpose will be to explore the history, the meaning, the music and the striking ritual actions of
this profoundly moving office, which in recent years has undergone an amazing resurgence,
fostered by the magnetic appeal of its compelling sights and soundscape.

Live via Zoom

2nd Annual Sacred Music Study Day

Details and registration forthcoming.

St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, California

Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit

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.