Category Archives: Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

The Madeleine Choir School

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Music for the Liturgy, Sight-Singing

Today I would like to write about the Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I was privileged to spend 6 weeks there in the fall of 2012.  Several events took place that I will never forget and I would like to share them with you.  The first one happened on the Sunday after I arrived.  I stood in the choir loft before Mass as the organist sounded a chord on the organ.  The choir of 25 boys plus men, standing beneath the loft, intoned the introit and the sound rang through the cathedral in a way I cannot describe.  As the choir returned to the antiphon following the Gloria Patri, the boys and men processed up the aisle to the apse, from where they sing.  Watching 25 boys singing the introit without a conductor while they walked in procession was more than I could comprehend.  Even more important than that was the way in which the introit set the tone for the entire Mass.

The second event I remember was sitting in a rehearsal with the junior high girls.  The cathedral’s organist at the time, Dr. Douglas O’Neil, passed out copies Palestrina’s 5 part Offertory motet, Superflumina Babylonis, which many of the girls (it was a young choir that year) had not sung before.  O’Neil asked for a translation and for the most part the girls gave gave him one (all students at the school take Latin).  Then he asked them for  the historical background of the psalm, and without any prodding a couple of students explained how the Jews were sad because the Babylonians had carried them off into exile (they even gave dates!).  Afterward, the students began to sing it fairly well at sight.  As a music director, I was more than slightly jealous.

The third event I remember was a rehearsal before a daily Mass when the boys weren’t as focused as they should have been.  Greg Glenn, the founder of the choir school, stopped and very seriously explained to the boys that most people in the world looked to politicians or political systems, money or power to save them.  Instead, as Catholics, he told them, they knew that the most powerful thing in all of the world was the Holy Mass, and that was why they were there to sing.  He told them to give it their absolute best.  I sincerely wished every Catholic could have heard him.

I bring up these three stories because they pull together for me what a choir school is really about, the wedding together of love of God, worship of God and giving Him the absolute best we have to offer, and the Madeleine Choir School does that.

The Madeleine Choir School was founded as an official school in 1996 by Greg Glenn in cooperation with the Cathedral of the Madeleine and Msgr. Francis Mannion, then the cathedral’s rector. Glenn spent three months at Westminster Cathedral (London) immersing himself in that program, which served as a model for the Madeleine Choir School (the Madeleine, however, educates both boy and girl choristers).  I will be forever grateful to Mr. Glen and Ms. Melanie Malinka, the school’s music teacher, for allowing me to visit the school, which became the model for my parish’s choir program.  The Madeleine Choir School is one of the crown jewels of sacred music in the United States and I wish it were more widely imitated.  This institution is truly forming Catholic musicians for the future.

Bertalot’s 12 Steps to Sight-Singing, Step 1

Chorister Training, Discipline, John Bertalot, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training, Sight-Singing, Uncategorized

We have finally come to the first of Bertalot’s 12 Steps to Sight-Singing—to Sing One Note.  This sounds ridiculous in its simplicity, so let’s find out what he means.

When most singers receive a new motet, they focus on the words rather than the music. Bertalot once demonstrated this to a group of adults by giving some children the words (minus musical notes) of a hymn and then asked them to sing it.  He played a melody on the piano that he made up on the fly, yet the children seemed to sing it like they had heard it before.  Bertalot made the point that children are great imitators and what looks like sight-singing is often just imitating what they have heard on the piano only a millisecond previously.  If you work with children, try this some time—it is all too true.  How does one get around it?  The answer is to get them to read the music notation as well as the text.

In the first rehearsal you have with your new singers, you will need to teach them a couple of basics of music notation before they can sing one note, namely that music is written on the staff (five lines AND four spaces) and the staff has a clef (if you are working with children, this will be the treble clef).  Once you draw the staff and the treble clef, point out that the belly of the treble clef wraps around the line we call G.  Play G above middle C on the piano and ask them to hum what they hear.  Then draw a quarter note on the same line.  Explain that the quarter note tells each singer to sing G for one FULL beat, meaning that if you as the director begin counting at number one, the children must sing the G from the moment you say 1 until you say two.  Then point to the note and have the children sing what they see.  You have just taught them how to first see, and then sing one note (both pitch and rhythm) correctly.  It always amazes me how excited children get when they have learned to sight-sing their first note.

As an aside, if you have your choristers sing a G at the beginning of each rehearsal, most of them will memorize it within the first few rehearsals and will thus have a reference point for pitching other other notes without the help of a piano.

Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum to Sing at Papal Mass

Choir Schools, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

I recently posted about the exciting news that our parish school (Most Pure Heart of Mary) will become the third Catholic choir school in the US this fall.  The choir, the Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum is already becoming a fine choir and regularly sing works by Palestrina, Byrd, Tallis, Victoria and Gregorian chant, as well as sacred music from the modern era.  As I previously recounted, the choir received an invitation from the Foundation for Music and the Sacred Arts (Vatican) to travel to Rome in January 2016 to participate in the very first Children’s Festival for Epiphany.  The choir will join the Sistine Chapel Choir, along with a number of other children choirs, to sing for Pope Francis’ Mass on January 6.

As you can imagine, the choristers are very excited!  Fundraising is already underway, with a quarter of the trip already paid for.  However, we have a number of families with two, three and even four children in the choir whose job is even more difficult than others.  The trip to Rome costs each chorister approximately 70 cents per mile.  If you or someone you know would be interested in funding a scholarship either in full or in part for one of the choristers, please feel free to donate safely here or send your donation to

Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum
1800 SW Stone Avenue
Topeka, KS 66604

Those who donate $50 or more will receive a complimentary copy of the Schola Cantorum’s Christmas CD.  Not only will you be helping to give a chorister a pilgrimage of a life time, you will also be contributing toward the growth of the newest choir school in the United States.  The entire Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum thanks you!

Bertalot’s 5 Wheels (1 of 2)

Chorister Training, John Bertalot, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training, Sight-Singing

In my previous post on John Bertalot’s 5 Wheels to Successful Sight-Singing, I wrote about the Great Secret, namely, “every moment of all practices must be geared to sight-singing.”  Today I would like to write about the Five Wheels themselves (the actual 12 steps he outlines on how to teach sight-singing come after the Five Wheels, so please be patient).  I will list them below with a little commentary following each wheel (Bertalot compares these to the wheels of an automobile.  You will see in the next post where the 5th wheel enters).

Wheel One-Passion  It sounds rather like a cliche to write that one needs to have passion for what one does, but it is true.  If you are going to teach your choir to sight-sing, it has to be an obsession with you.  This determination will force you to make decisions about what your choir will sing and how you will teach those pieces of music.  If you don’t make this an over-riding priority you will not succeed at it.  I have personally reached the point where I am not willing to compromise on this issue with my choristers, even if it means cancelling a motet they don’t have time to learn by sight.  I will not go back and you mustn’t either.

Wheel Two-Small Groups  Bertalot believes that ideally one would teach one student at a time (he feels that two students take twice as long to teach as one student) so that no chorister falls through the cracks or get by using another chorister as a crutch, however, he takes four students at a time because of time constraints.  I find this wheel difficult because the choir master never has enough time in his day and training 10 new singers individually doesn’t fit into his schedules.  I currently have 13 new students that I see as a group, and while it goes much slower with this many students, it is what works for my schedule.  You will have to figure this out for yourself, but smaller is better.

Wheel Three-Teach One Step at a Time  I remember the exact rehearsal with my choristers when I finally slowed down enough (I wanted my kids to sound like Westminster Cathedral as soon as possible) that I taught only one concept at a time and made them figure out the music on their own.  We made it through only 4 measures of a new hymn in 15 minutes (unison only), but those minutes flew past and every child was thoroughly engaged and enjoying himself.  It was great!  So… what did it look like?  First they figured out the key and time signatures, then they clapped the rhythm until they had it right. Next, they sang through the hymn in solfege without worrying about rhythm.  Then they put pitch and rhythm together, after which they added text.  It sounds tedious (and it is), but two years later it goes much faster.

Another thing to remember is not to skip important steps or concepts you take for granted. Think of the grand staff.  How many directors teach the staff as having 5 lines?  That is true, but only half true.  The staff also has 4 spaces, which are just as important as the lines.  You would be amazed how long it takes to stick in the minds of some choristers that the scale moves from line to space (or vice versa), rather than line to line (rarely ever do they think it moves from space to space).  Make sure you are teaching only one step at a time and that your steps build one on another in a logical sequence.  And don’t skip important concepts!

Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Music for the Liturgy

I would like to share some exciting news with everyone.  Currently, there are only two Catholic choir schools in the United States, but beginning in the fall of 2015 they will be joined by a third in Topeka, KS.

If you have read my biography, you know that I work for an incredible parish in northeastern Kansas, Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church.  The parish is home to 1800 families, as well as a school with 400 children enrolled and a vibrant home schooling community.  The parish is shepherded by two young, dynamic priests who are committed to living the Faith in its fullness and bringing that Faith into the world.  We currently have three men from the parish studying for the priesthood, one of whom will be ordained in May.

Four years ago our former pastor gave me permission to spend six weeks at the Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City, UT, in order to gather information for my doctoral document (which is on the Madeleine Choir School).  When I asked him for permission to go, I told him that I would like to begin such a choral program in the parish, and from that meeting was born the Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum.  Until now, the Schola Cantorum has always been an “after school” choir school.  Our 45 choristers currently rehearse two to three hours every week and sing every Sunday, save one, from September through the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (our Patroness).  The choir focuses on intense vocal training as well as sight-singing and ear-training.  Two years ago we began a training program for organist and last year the choir recorded its first CD,  A Service of Lessons and Carols.  In January of 2016, the choir will travel to Rome to sing for the papal Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany, alongside the Sistine Chapel Choir as well as others from around the world.

With the blessing of our pastor and our principal, the Schola Cantorum will be integrated in the parish school in the fall of 2015, thus becoming the third Catholic choir school in the United State of America.

I write this in order to share my genuine excitement with people who feel the same way, but also to ask for a favor.  We are searching for a new music teacher to continue the 25 plus year legacy of our current music teacher who is retiring in the spring.  If you or someone you know would like to help provide an incredible musical education to future generations of our youth, please contact me.  This could be your chance of a life time!  Finally, I ask for your prayers for our new choral foundation.

Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

I have been blessed to work for the past almost seven years for Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Topeka, KS.  When I arrived in 2008 I took over the adult choir and began a children’s choir.  In 2011 we founded the Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, an after school music program for children modeled after the European choir school, for the formation of future musicians for the parish and for the Church in general.  In 2013 the adult choir was grafted into the program, and today there are more than 30 adults and 45 children (an several student organists) in the Schola Cantorum.  My favorite hours each week are the various rehearsals with the adults (a wonderful family of musicians), the children and the men who sing the Communio and verses during choral Masses.  I look forward to sharing with the readers how this program came about and to encourage others to do the same (If I can do it, so can you!).  In the mean time, please visit Schola Cantorum website (www.mphm.com/schola-cantorum) and like it on Facebook.

*The first video is of the adults singing Palestrina’s Alma Redemptoris Mater.  The second is of the senior choristers singing Boris Ord’s Adam lay ybounden.