The Catholic Sacred Music Project’s 2nd Choral Festival: San Francisco, June 26 - July 1

The Catholic Sacred Music Project will be hosting its second Choral Festival for Young Professional and Aspiring Church Musicians, June 26 - July 1, in collaboration with Sacra Liturgia at St Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California. Martin Baker, the former Master of Music of Westminster Cathedral, will be the festival conductor and lead the participants in singing Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli for an Ordinary Form Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pell, as well as a concert of choral music of living Catholic composers. The daily program will include intensive rehearsals, communal meals, panel discussions on sacred music, and all of the Sacra Liturgia liturgies and addresses given by Cardinal Sarah, Cardinal Pell, Archbishop Cordileone, and Dr. Jennifer Donelson–Nowicka.

The Catholic Sacred Music Project was founded in 2021 to provide professional musical development for current and future leaders in Catholic sacred music with the ultimate goal of effecting a widespread renewal of sacred music in the Church. The Church’s rich and beautiful teachings on sacred music are put into practice through performing masterworks from the Church’s musical tradition in the context of exemplary liturgies, and through intensive encounters with world-renowned conductors, composers, and pedagogues. Through these experiences, musicians are given the knowledge and skills they need to serve the Church more faithfully and to renew and develop its culture of sacred music.

All interested musicians are encouraged to apply though space is limited. Applications will be accepted until April 9 and evaluated no later than April 16. For more information, visit the CSMP website: https://www.sjbsacredmusic.org/

Sacra Liturgia San Francisco: June 28 - July 1

This year’s Sacra Liturgia conference, sponsored by His Excellency Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, will take place in his episcopal city of San Francisco from June 28 to July 1; registrations are now open via the conference website: https://www.sacraliturgiasf.com/

The Sacra Liturgia conference, founded by Dom Alcuin Reid, is an internationally recognized center of intellectual excellence in liturgical scholarship. Beautiful Masses are celebrated with excellent choirs so Catholics can experience the power of the Eucharist in a new way. The conference will take place from June 28 to July 1 at St Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, close to Stanford University. Among this year’s roster of speakers features Cardinal Robert Sarah, Cardinal George Pell, Bishop Steven Lopes, Dom Alcuin Reid, Father Joseph Fessio, Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, Msgr. Gerard O’Connor, Duncan Stroik and more. Renowned choral conductor Martin Baker, past president of the British Royal College of Organists and until recently Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, will conduct singers from the Sacred Music Project in a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pell. The final Mass will feature new music by Frank La Rocca, composed in honor of St Junipero Serra (Missa Sancti Juniperi Serra), and be celebrated by the conference host, Abp Cordileone, on St Junipero’s feast day, July 1, at the historic Mission Dolores which the Saint founded in 1776. Richard Sparks will conduct the Benedict Sixteen Choir and Orchestra.

The conference schedule can be found here: https://www.sacraliturgiasf.com/schedule

Options before and after the conference include: an tour of beautiful churches of San Francisco, available on the afternoon of the 28th; a reception with Kansas City Chief kicker Harrison Butker after the final Mass; a sacred music concert conducted by Martin Baker featuring the works of living Catholic composers. Ticket holders will be emailed information about these before and after events. Accommodation should be booked separately.