Is there an opportunity for improvement in your parish music program? Has there been a change in personnel, circumstances, or resources that makes growth possible? Perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic has presented possibilities for progress.  Maybe you are looking at how to introduce the proper chants into a parish Mass, improve the hymnody used, or build the choral program. How does one make changes in a prudent and positive manner? Dr. Mary Jane Ballou joins us to discuss these and related questions.  Dr. Ballou is Music Director at an Ordinariate parish in formation in Jacksonville, Florida. In addition to conducting and performing, Dr. Ballou is a regular contributor to the Sacred Music journal of the Church Music Association of America (CMAA) on the practical aspects of choir/schola training and management, and is a member of the CMAA’s group blog, The Chant Café. Dr. Mary Jane Ballou's Website  Sacred Music Journal  Chant Cafe Blog 

In our first roundtable discussion on sacred music we talk with experienced church musicians and CMAA chaplain, Fr. Robert Pasley, about fostering community in parish life through building up sacred music programs.  Charles Cole's Website: https://charlescole.com Mary Ann Carr Wilson's Website: http://www.maryanncarr.com/index.html  Church Music Association of America's Website: https://musicasacra.com 

Learn some tips and tricks to orient yourself along the journey from pianist-only, to organist-as-well. Dr. Crista Miller, Director of Music and Cathedral Organist at the Co-cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, discusses differences in technique between the two instruments, learning to pedal, figuring out registration, and some great beginning repertoire. For more information about her summer 2020 online class at St. Joseph's Seminary, click here: https://jenniferdonelson.com/classes  To register, click here: https://www.dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes  For the list of repertoire Dr. Miller recommends, click here: https://sacredmusicpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Practical-Beginning-Repertoire-Collections-for-Organists.pdf  For more information about Dr. Miller, check out her bio here: https://www.sacredhearthouston.org/dr-crista-miller-1 The co-cathedral's YouTube page is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4N4fjBNP595MgpsgIiqWQw Or on SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/user-545548420 Dr. Crista Miller's personal SoundCloud page has some great recordings and interviews she's given: https://soundcloud.com/cordenuit8

Are you a music director looking for ideas about what to do whilst there are restrictions on sacred music put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Check out this episode. It's not for the casual listener, and we don't go into any virology or epidemiology, but for the music director in search of music to sing and play when faced with limitations, we hope you'll find this helpful. For a link to all the resources mentioned in the episode and more, click here: https://sacredmusicpodcast.com/resources

What are the top five things that people don't understand when it comes to sacred music? In this first part of a two-part episode, we take time to give a substantive response to what many Catholics might not know or don't get right about music for the sacred liturgy. We look at liturgical and philosophical principles that have been fleshed out through the centuries as the Church has guided musicians in building up the treasury of sacred music, and spend some time on insights from Church documents.  For more information about the Summer 2020 online class taught by Dr. Donelson-Nowicka at St. Joseph's Seminary, "Principles of Sacred Music," click here: https://sacredmusicpodcast.com/upcoming-events. To register, or for an FAQ about sacred music study at Dunwoodie, click here: https://www.dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes. 

On this episode, we discuss matters of liturgical formation, both for musicians, as well as for those we serve. Dom Alcuin Reid is the founding Prior of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France, and a liturgical scholar of international renown. His principle work, The Organic Development of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, 2005) carries a preface by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Dom Alcuin's Address at the 2019 Sacred Music Colloquium is available here: https://sacredmusicpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reid-Article.pdf  Monastère Saint-Benoît website: https://www.msb-lgf.org/ Monastère Saint-Benoît Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monastere-Saint-Benoit-816333008482594/

Are you looking for an authentically Catholic curriculum and method for teaching music to children? Something that's practical, fun, and helps children to grow in love of the Church's sacred music? This bonus episode looks at the history of the development of the Ward method, its underlying educational principles, its place in Catholic education, and the experience both of those who learn to teach with the method, as well as that of children who learn music using the method. Our guest is Mr. Kevin Collins, an NYC actor and father.  More information about the July 20–24, 2020 class "Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children," taught live over Zoom through St. Joseph's Seminary is available here: https://sacredmusicpodcast.com/upcoming-events. Registration and an FAQ are available here: www.dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes. The printable book of litanies mentioned at the end of the episode is available here: http://jenniferdonelson.com/sacred-music-resources.

Franz Liszt, haunted by the spectre of God's grace, was never able to fully shake off his Catholic faith. Our guest, Dr. Jay Hershberger, the president of the American Liszt Society, shares with us a Catholic portrait of the pianist and composer's life, highlighting his story of conversion, his later years in fervent practice of his faith, his compositions about various Catholic topics and music for the liturgy, and even about his non-musical writings about the theological issues of the day. Dr. Alan Walker's 3-part biography of Liszt is available here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/241476/franz-liszt-volume-1-by-alan-walker/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184865/franz-liszt-volume-2-by-alan-walker/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184864/franz-liszt-volume-3-by-alan-walker/ Check out the American Liszt Society here: http://americanlisztsociety.net Dr. Hershberger's faculty page at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN is available here: https://www.concordiacollege.edu/directories/faculty-staff/details/dr-jay-a-hershberger/ 

An opinion piece published in the New York Times on May 8, 2020, entitled “Christianity Gets Weird,” highlights for readers the attraction of beauty and mystery for the young, and how that attraction leads to an embrace of the Faith, even in spite of (perhaps because of!) the countercultural nature of it all. This interview with Fr. Gaurav Shroff, a priest of the archdiocese of Atlanta, is likewise a testament to the power of beauty, mystery, and sacred music to attract. 

Our first-ever bonus episode—outside our normal publication schedule and a more extended conversation than our normal episodes—features a conversation with Dr. Timothy McDonnell of Catholic University in America. Looking at the near-term future of music making in the Church, our conversation presents music directors with ideas that they can implement to improve their skills in conducting, vocal pedagogy, and ear training now, and what the current situation means for the future of our parish music programs and profession. We offer ideas that you might implement in pared-down music programs under phased restrictions, and discuss a class Tim is offering through St. Joseph's Seminary this summer that's designed to help parish music directors improve their skills.  For more information or to register for Tim's class, "Conducting and Group Vocal Pedagogy for the Parish Music Director" (July 29-31, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., live online), visit: www.dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes