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Cathedral Choir

Cathedral Choir will resume as usual with rehearsal on Wednesday, September 1; aside from the Sundays of July, our staff singers will function as the choir for summertime. New members (and substitute staff singers) are auditioned on a rolling basis at the discretion of the Director of Music. Help is needed in all voice parts; prospective members should be able to read music and commit to the schedule outlined below. Please contact the Director of Music for more information. A choral music list can be found in the “Orders of Worship” subpage of this website. Performances of Cathedral Choir are occasionally posted to the Director of Music’s SoundCloud page.

The Cathedral Choir is a semi-professional choral ensemble of men and women high school age and older who support the liturgical worship of the cathedral parish through musical leadership and presentation of the “treasury of sacred music”. It strives, in both quality of repertoire and execution, to model the high standard directed by the Second Vatican Council (cf., Sacrosanctum concilium, 114). In accord with the tradition of the Church, the repertoire of the choir consists chiefly of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony, as well as worthy examples of modern sacred music in Latin and vernacular languages.

The Cathedral Choir also serves for all pontifical liturgies and for other liturgies of special emphasis in the Diocese that occur at the Cathedral. Membership is by audition only, but new members are welcomed at all times. Members need not be Catholic, but must be able to read music (and be open to learning Gregorian notation) and should have a love of the repertoire that traditionally supports Catholic worship.

A typical week for a Cathedral Choir member (from roughly September until the feast of Corpus Christi) consists of the following:

  • At-home practice: ca. one hour per week
  • Weekly rehearsal on Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30pm
  • Sunday Sung Mass at 11:00am, with 10:00am “call time”; repertoire includes Gregorian chant “propers” as well as motets/anthems and occasional polyphonic movements of the Ordinary of Mass
  • Recent representative repertoire can be found on the Orders of Worship/Music Lists page.

For more information, or if you are interested in joining this group of dedicated and cordial individuals, please contact the Director of Music, Mr. Bruce Ludwick, Jr., at Ludwick@stpaulsbhm.org or (205) 251-1279 x107.