New Composers Lenten Prayer Service with Archbishop Cordileone in SF +Chant

Passionately Pursuing the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ this Lent

Archbishop Cordileone, the Archbishop's Schola, and Sacred Music--Ever Ancient Ever New--with Living Catholic Composers

Saturday, March 5, 2022 11am Lenten Prayer Service "Passionately Pursuing the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ" at St. Stephens, SF, Archbishop Cordileone celebrant.

The Archbishop's Schola, Rebekah Wu conductor.

The Cross is coming. Prepare for Easter by praying profoundly with Archbishop Cordileone and the Archbishop's own Schola: Eight voices offering a glimpse of the transcendent through Gregorian chant AND the works of living Catholic composers including Frank La Rocca, Robert Chastain, Daniel Knaggs, Jeffrey Quick, Kevin Allen and more.

YOU will be invited to join in the Gregorian chant (with a quick tutorial, never fear!)

Experience the reality: our Catholic artistic tradition has not only deep roots but new flowers of beauty. Experience the next Catholic renaissance with extraordinary talented living Catholic composers with the Benedict XVI Institute.

Purify your heart. Raise your soul to the highest things.

Pray with Archbishop Cordileone and the Archbishop's Schola.

Please register so we can prepare and if you have the means donate $25 to help us continue to evangelize through sacred beauty. Help us introduce more young adults to the beauty of Catholic traditions including Gregorian Chant.

Pizza party on the plaza to follow with a special welcome to Catholic young adults and a chance to meet the Archbishop.

Meet the Composers:

Frank La Rocca FrankLaRocca.com

Frank La Rocca, composer-in-residence for the Benedict XVI Institute, is the composer of The Mass of the Americas, The Requiem Mass for the Homeless, and the forthcoming July 1 Missa Sancti Juniperi Serra at Mission Dolores with the Benedict Sixteen Choir and Orchestra.

The Mass of the Americas has been hailed as “Perhaps the most significant Catholic composition of our lifetimes “Michael Olbash. He is also the recent winner of the ORTUS international choral composition competition, and was awarded  a 2018 American Prize for his "A Rose In Winter – the life of St. Rita of Cascia", a major work for chorus, orchestra and soloists.  La Rocca has received grants, commissions and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, the Foundation for Sacred Arts, Young Women's Chorus of San Francisco, Diocese of Oakland, California State University, ASCAP Foundation, USC Thornton Chamber Singers, Vanguard Voices, London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, Cois Cladaigh, the Madrigirls and many others.  His work, Diffusa Est Gratia was toured by the renowned London Oratory School Schola Cantorum in Fall 2017 in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. His CD In This Place (Enharmonic Records) reached the top ten in classical CD sales on Amazon and was a 2013 "Critic's Choice" at American Record Guide. 

Mark Nowakowski http://current.marknowakowski.com

Mark Nowakowski is a composer whose wide and diverse output represents a modern merger of bold expressionism and mystical contemplation, Slavic pathos and American individualism. His work has been commissioned and performed globally by such notables as the Kronos Quartet, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, The Monteverdi Cello Octet, The Voxare Quartet, the FiveOne Experimental Orchestra, Three Notch’d Road, Stowarzyszenia Mozart, Vox Musica of Sacramento, the Choir of the Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the Cracow Brass Quintet, and the frequently awarded Chór Akademicki im. prof. Jana Szyrockiego.

Daniel Knaggs danieljknaggs.com

"[A] rising star in the sky of serious, young American composers…”-Chorzeit (Germany)

Daniel Knaggs now serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the College of Wooster, Ohio. He loves evoking vivid imagery in his music, as well as focusing his efforts into projects such as his 50-year Ave Maria Project (2005-2054) and his “After” Motets Project. Increasingly sought after as a composer, Knaggs has recently been commissioned by the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, VOCES8, Wells Cathedral Choir, Choir & Organ Magazine/The Choir of Royal Holloway, the Yale Norfolk Summer Choral Festival, the Warsaw-Praga Cathedral Choir (Poland), and many others.

Robert Chastain www.robertchastain.com

Composer, conductor, bassoonist, and singer Robert “Bobby” Chastain has firmly established himself in the San Francisco Bay Area musical scene, composing works for orchestra, choir, and chamber groups with a special inclination toward the voice. His music is often highly contrapuntal and richly textured, with an occasional return to simplicity.

Composer John Corigliano described Chastain as being “a virtuoso with the orchestra, [and with] a distinctive sound.” Arts SF described his music as being “irresistible” with “great momentum,” while SF Classical Voice described his orchestral and wind ensemble work, Metanoia, as a “sound poem with well-rendered effects and a rich texture… will have a lasting appeal for wind ensembles around the world.” Awards include the Susan and Ford Schumann Fellowship to the Aspen Summer Music Festival and School as well as a Williamson Foundation Grant to the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France.

As a conductor, Chastain is equally comfortable with instrumental and vocal ensembles. His current ensembles include “Collegium,” the SATB chorus of the San Francisco Conservatory Pre-College Division and “Mouthscape,” a new music choir that he co-founded as a for-credit ensemble at the San Francisco Conservatory.

Jeffrey Quick JeffreyQuick.com

Jeffrey Quick is a composer whose works are print-published by Hoyt Editions, the American Recorder Society and Lorenz; many of his sacred works are available for free download at cpdl.org, and other works can be purchased for download at newmusicshelf.com. He is assistant music librarian at Case Western Reserve University, and directs the schola cantorum of St. Sebastian Church in Akron OH.