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FALL 2026
First day of Liturgical Choir rehearsals- Monday, August 24 (**Email ndcchoir@nd.edu if you are 10+ y.o interested in joining!)
First day of Rehearsals (Cherub Girls, Cantabile, Descant, Chamber and Seraphim Choirs) - Thursday, September 3 (Boys Cherub starts Tues. 9/8) at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, 115 S. Frances Street, South Bend
Camp Eberhart Choir Retreat (Descant, Chamber, Seraphim) - Friday- Saturday, October 2-3
Creation Hymn Festival - Saturday, October 10
(Notre Dame FALL BREAK - NO REHEARSALS - October 17-25)
Christmas Concert (ALL CHOIRS) - December 5
SPRING 2027
Liturgical Choir rehearsals resume - Monday, January 11
Cherub, Cantabile, Descant, Chamber and Seraphim Choirs resume - Thursday, January 14
(ND SPRING BREAK NO REHEARSALS - March 6-14)
Liturgy of the Hours - March 19-20
NDCC Community Festival - (ALL choirs) Saturday, April 24
Choir Camp - (Chamber, Seraphim, Liturgical) Sunday - Saturday, June 6-12
NDCC SUMMER TOUR (Chamber, Seraphim, Liturgical) Sunday - Saturday, June 13 - 20
**Additional social events, performances and NEW EVENTS to be shared at the beginning of the season.
We are registering and auditioning NEW MEMBERS for choir NOW!
Submit an Interest form on our website: childrenschoir.nd.edu.
AUDITIONS for Singers 9+ y.o. July 27-30 1-3 PM by appointment at Notre Dame, (contact ndcchoir@nd.edu)
WALK-IN AUDITIONS August 18 and 20 (3-5PM) at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, 115 S. Frances Street, South Bend
If you haven't re-registered for the next season, log into ChoirGenius and purchase a RETURNING MEMBERSHIP right away!
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Originally published by at sacredmusic.nd.edu on February 06, 2023.
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The Notre Dame Children's Choir's Liturgical Choir is joined by Dr. Heaven Fan, Harp; Trevis Young, Organ; is conducted by Dr. Mark Doerries, and was prepared by Sacred Music at Notre Dame graduate students and alumni Dallin Baldwin (DMA), Lorraine Mihaliak (MSM), and Jude Nwankwo (MSM).
Download copies of the album at ndcc.hearnow.com or purchase physical copies from the NDCC's Online Marketplace. Your purchase supports the choristers, directors, and staff of the Notre Dame Children's Choir.
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Roberson, a graduate of the Master of Sacred Music Program at Notre Dame, organized the event with support from Mark Doerries, associate professor of the practice of conducting and head of the Graduate Studio in Choral Conducting in Sacred Music.
“What we were trying to convey was the fact that African-Americans are not one-dimensional people; we can do a lot” musically, Roberson said. “It was just showing people what we can bring to the table and how our history is very relevant today.”
“It was beautiful. We had so many positive responses because it was so new,” Roberson said. “And based on those responses, I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing it again next year.”The event drew a diverse crowd of over seven hundred to the Leighton Concert Hall at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center for 90 minutes of music as well as dance from Uzima, an Afro-Caribbean dance company based out of South Bend.
Doerries said, “’Unsung’ united musicians across racial, religious, age, ability and economic divides in an evening of music that brought the audience to their feet in praise, prayer and wonder. The music of African-American composers and performers is too often underperformed in academic venues and viewed as second-class art. Emorja Roberson and his collaborators shattered this stereotype before the packed and diverse audience of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.”
For more on Sacred Music, including a list of upcoming events, visit sacredmusic.nd.edu.
Originally published by at publicaffairs.nd.edu on February 25, 2019.
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Students and faculty from Sacred Music at Notre Dame had a full schedule of performances in South Bend and California the week before Christmas. The Notre Dame Children’s Choir along with an octet of graduate-student vocalists and conductors were featured performers with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Alistair Willis and prepared by Dr. Mark Doerries. The octet of singers included Emily Bird, Erin Wendt, Alyse Jamieson, Fatima Anyekeyma, Nolan Carter, Brandon Hollihan, Jared Swope, and Zen Kuriyama who performed holiday classics including We Need a Little Christmas, Twas the Night Before Christmas, and works from Hollywood composer John Williams from Home Alone and Empire of the Sun. The Notre Dame Children’s Choir joined the graduate-student vocalists on many compositions and performed an arrangement of the carol Ding Dong Merrily On High with the orchestra.
To celebrate the release of Arturo Sandoval’s Christmas at Notre Dame and the album’s #2 ranking on Billboard’s Chart of Jazz Music, the Notre Dame Children’s Choir performed at Walt Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA to a sold-out audience of 2300 patrons. The choir, along with Arturo Sandoval and his Big Band, were joined by Sacred Music at Notre Dame soprano soloist Emily Swope, undergradaute pianist and arranger of seven tracks on the album Alex Mansour, and faculty conductor Mark Doerries.
While in California, the Notre Dame Children’s Choir mounted a performance of the jazz Advent cantata O Emmanuel at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church of Huntington Beach. The Notre Dame Children’s Choir was led by graduate-student conductors Erin Wendt and Joshua Wang, with soloists Emily Swope, soprano; Alyse Jamieson, mezzo-soprano; Nolan Carter, tenor; and Emorja Roberson, baritone. Composer J.J. Wright (‘17, DMA) performed at the piano with bassist John Belzaguy and drummer Johnny Friday. Notre Dame staff members Dr. Daniel Stein, concertmaster, and Dr. Rose Wollman, violaist, led the orchestra and Suze Villano and Clayton Brown managed the choristers along their cross-country journey. The ensemble also sang for mass at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church to a congregation of over 900 worshipers. O Emmanuel was also performed at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame two week earlier, led by Notre Dame Children’s Choir Assistant Conductor Erin Donegan.
University of Notre Dame alumni Ignacio and Monica Lozano supported the ensemble’s performances and provided tickets to Disneyland. The performers also explored the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach and the Winter Glow light display at Grand Park of Los Angeles. Arturo Sandoval’s Christmas at Notre Dame has sold almost 6,000 copies nationally, and the Notre Dame Children’s Choir’s prior album, O Emmanuel, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Chart of Traditional Classical Music in 2015.
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The guest appearance is part of Sandoval’s “Swinging Christmas with the Arturo Sandoval Big Band” concert at 8 p.m. on Dec. 21 (Friday).
The Notre Dame Children’s Choir is joined by Notre Dame students Emily Swope, a soprano and master's student in voice, and senior music major Alexander Mansour, a pianist and arranger of seven songs on Sandoval’s album. The ensemble is led by Mark Doerries, associate director of Sacred Music at Notre Dame.
Sandoval recorded “Arturo Sandoval’s Christmas at Notre Dame” in May 2017, returning to the University after receiving an honorary doctoral degree the previous year. The 12-track album includes religious classics such as “Silent Night” and secular songs such as “Frosty the Snowman.”
The album debuted in October and has spent the past six weeks in the top five albums on Billboard’s Chart of Jazz Albums. In addition to the Notre Dame Children’s Choir, the album features the Notre Dame Jazz Ensemble and Symphonic Winds.
“This album unites a wide cross-section of the Notre Dame community, with undergraduate and graduate students, child choristers and professional musicians to create vibrant renditions of classic Christmas music,” Doerries said.
For tickets to the Walt Disney Concert Hall performance, visit www.laphil.com.
Founded in 2013, the Notre Dame Children’s Choir provides free music education to more than 300 choristers between the ages of 1 and 17 each week. The choir has toured from Minneapolis to New York City, performed for the National Pastoral Musicians’ Association and the Indiana Music Education Association, and led a TEDx talk, “What If Children Were More Than Cute?”
In 2016, "O Emmanuel," an Advent and Christmas cantata for jazz trio and choir by composer J.J. Wright — commissioned by and featuring the Notre Dame Children’s Choir — debuted at No. 1 on Billboards’ Chart of Traditional Classical Music.
Profits from the sale of “Arturo Sandoval’s Christmas at Notre Dame” will help support the Arturo Sandoval Institute Scholarship at Notre Dame, which provides access, support and inspiration to music students so they may continue their music education without economic worry.
An internationally acclaimed jazz and classical musician and composer, Sandoval, who is Cuban-American, has won 10 Grammy Awards, six Billboard Awards and an Emmy Award. He is a 2013 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Now an emeritus professor of music at Florida International University, he continues to tour, perform and offer clinics and seminars worldwide.
“Arturo Sandoval’s trumpet raises our spirits and gladdens our hearts as we celebrate Christmas,” said Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. “His musical expression of unbridled joy and goodwill calls us to embrace the love, charity and reconciliation at the heart of this blessed season. ‘Arturo Sandoval’s Christmas at Notre Dame’ is sure to become a holiday classic.”
The Notre Dame Children’s Choir will perform a second concert at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Huntington Beach, California, at 12:30 p.m. Dec. 23., featuring music from “O Emmanuel.” The performance is free and open to the public.
Contact: Mark Doerries, director of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir, mdoerries@nd.edu, 574-631-6528
Originally published by at al.nd.edu on Nov. 27.
]]>An internationally acclaimed jazz and classical musician and composer, Arturo Sandoval has received 10 Grammy Awards, six Billboard Awards and an Emmy Award and is a 2013 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this nation’s highest civilian honor. Sandoval will headline a festive Christmas in September event featuring the Notre Dame Children’s Choir, Notre Dame Symphonic Winds, and the Notre Dame Jazz Ensemble. His album Arturo Sandoval’s Christmas at Notre Dame, recorded last year in the Leighton Concert Hall, will be released Sept. 28.
Originally published by at al.nd.edu on September 18, 2018.
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The University of Notre Dame has received a $1.6 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support the Sacred Music at Notre Dame (SMND) program and its transformative work with graduate students and the community.
This is the program’s second grant from the Lilly Endowment — a private, philanthropic foundation that supports the causes of religion, education, and community development — following a $1.9 million grant in 2012 that helped launch SMND. Since then, graduate students in the Master of Sacred Music and Doctor of Musical Arts programs working through SMND have expanded outreach efforts to churches across northern Indiana, including through the Notre Dame Children’s Choir.
Margot Fassler
“The work we have been able to do through our initial grant from the Lilly Endowment has been nothing short of astounding,” said Margot Fassler, director of SMND and Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy. “It has surpassed our greatest hopes and dreams for our students and for building the lives of the churches in our communities, in Indiana, and throughout the United States.”
In 2013, SMND founded its doctoral program and began partnering with local churches to offer internships for its graduate students. Four years later, the program is preparing to move into its new, state-of-the-art facilities in O’Neill Hall, and Notre Dame students are involved in strengthening music programs and establishing children’s choirs at more than a dozen area churches.
Upon graduation, alumni from the program have had a 100 percent placement record, Fassler said, securing positions at schools and churches across the U.S.
“Every church or community that has one of our alumni will be transformed,” she said. “It will be a different place within a few years because that person is there working. Our students are incredibly skilled musically, of course, but they’re also able to build community and help empower others to learn and grow spiritually and intellectually as well as musically.”
Mark Doerries
With the first Lilly Endowment grant, the program also launched the Notre Dame Children’s Choir. Since that time, the initiative — now called the Sacred Music Academy — has grown from 20 children to more than 300 in multiple choirs, some of which tour and record their music. An album commissioned by the Notre Dame Children’s Choir debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s traditional classical albums chart in 2016.
“We have grown steadily, and I think it represents a real need in the community,” said Mark Doerries, artistic director of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir and associate director of community outreach at SMND. “We have lit a spark with families and churches as well as music educators.”
The new funding will enable the Sacred Music Academy to explore a partnership with the South Bend Community School Corporation on an after-school choral-music education program for under-resourced areas of the community.
The academy offers a unique opportunity not only for the children who participate, but for the graduate students who help lead the choirs, Doerries said.
“What we hope to convey to our graduate students is that it is the best musicians who should be working with children,” he said. “Each of our graduate students had a music teacher in their past who made a difference in their lives, who pointed them in this direction. And we want them to see that they can do that for young people.”
O’Neill Hall, on the south side of Notre Dame Stadium, will be the new home for Sacred Music at Notre Dame.
Beginning in January, Sacred Music at Notre Dame will be housed in O’Neill Hall — a prominent, central location on campus with new recital halls and rehearsal spaces, classrooms, a large music library, and close proximity to other arts facilities on campus.
That sets up tremendous possibilities, Doerries said.
“We are grateful for both the University’s and Lilly Endowment’s continued investment in us and their faith in the work that we do,” he said. “And we only see a bright future ahead.”
“Every church or community that has one of our alumni will be transformed. Our students are incredibly skilled musically, of course, but they’re also able to build community and help empower others to learn and grow spiritually and intellectually as well as musically.”
Originally published by at al.nd.edu on July 25, 2017.
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The album is a blend of sacred music and jazz improvisation, featuring renditions of Advent and Christmas texts and melodies.
Originally published by at news.nd.edu on November 18, 2016.
]]>O Emmanuel was commissioned by the Notre Dame Children’s Choir from DMA conducting student and GRAMMY Award-winning pianist J.J. Wright. Premiered in December of 2015 in South Bend, IN, O Emmanuel was recorded by Five/Four Productions and with the aid of the Dynamic Catholic Label and in collaboration with the J.J. Wright Trio, Fifth House Ensemble of Chicago, and under the direction of Dr. Mark Doerries. O Emmanuel is an Advent and Christmas cantata scored for jazz trio, chamber orchestra, children’s choir, and child and adult soloists.
In addition to reaching the #1 position on the Traditional Classical Music Billboard Chart, the album reached #3 for all Classical Music Charts, #10 for the Christian Album Chart, and #28 for the Holiday Album Chart.
The classical music column Slipped Disc reported the news that O Emmanuel and Joyce DiDonato's new album In War an Peace were the only classical albums recently to sell more than 2000 albums in a single week.
O Emmanuel has received accolades from Most Reverend Richard J. Malone, Bishop of Buffalo, NY; Most Reverend Kevin C. Rhodes, Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN, as well as media outlets from the Rational Catholic Register to NPR.
To learn more about the O Emmanuel and order a copy, visit: www.oemmanuel.com.
The new album from Dynamic Catholic is J.J. Wright’s bold experiment with a Christmas album that both surprises and challenges. It also brings unexpected delights of jazz to the season.
November 08, 2016 02:49 EST
Christopher S. Morrissey
O Emmanuel is a magnificent new album that unfolds unlike any other Christmas disc you have heard before. To be precise, it is an Advent album. But that’s why it’s absolutely the perfect recording for you to play endlessly in heavy rotation during these weeks before Christmas.
Although the secular world jumps the gun by playing non-liturgical Christmas music during Advent, you can crank up O Emmanuel as your audio rejoinder. Now, this won’t be a belligerent act on your part. On the surface, the O Emmanuel CD sounds at first like a Christmas album. But nonetheless it offers many surprising musical change-ups that will soon entice people to ask just what is that wonderful album you are listening to? At that point, you can explain to them what Advent is and how this album works.
It’s a traditional preparation for Christmas, but with a contemporary musical twist. It takes the venerable ‘O Antiphons’ (from the Liturgy of the Hours’ December 17 to 23 Vespers prayers) as the basis and inspiration for a brand new composition commissioned by the Notre Dame Children’s Choir. The talented composer behind this project is J.J. Wright, a Grammy Award-winning pianist with a Masters of Sacred Music from the University of Notre Dame.
Wright and the Notre Dame Children’s Choir first collaborated in 2014. The project was Wright’s jazz liturgical service Vespers for the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, at Chicago’s St. Clement Catholic Church. Seeking a fresh sound for sacred music, the Notre Dame Children’s Choir commissioned Wright to compose an Advent work. not just for the choir, but also to add musical room for Wright’s jazz piano trio. This unusual combination results in O Emmanuel, which is quite simply the best jazz infusion into contemporary Christmas music since Charlie Brown’s Christmas.
As you listen more and more carefully to this album, you will realize how outstanding it is. The music here bears the mark of true distinction. You will quickly realize this is an album unlike the quality of most seasonal alternatives.
Its unexpected combinations forge its greatest strengths. Think about it: Your favorite Christmas albums probably have something a little bit quirky and unusual to them. Your favorites usually don’t sound like the usual department store Christmas music. Whenever you put this personal Christmas music on, unless the people visiting you are family, they will probably interrupt the conversation either to remark about how the music sounds strange, or else they want to know right away what this unusual thing they have never heard before is. For example, I like to throw visitors off balance with unexpected tracks from the Carpenters’ Christmas album, or Wilson Phillips, or Sufjan Stevens, or… well, really, there’s no end to the ways once can make musical mischief at Christmas. And this is why you need to tap into J.J. Wright’s Advent experiment.
Think about why the Charlie Brown Christmas album has become such a hit. It has unusual jazz tracks, which are not quite what you would expect on the typical Christmas album. The same is true of this project by Wright. What sounds like a traditional choir number suddenly morphs into a jazz trio. Once that happens, you realize you simply don’t know what’s going to be coming next on this disc. But that’s what makes it so much fun because, in addition to the surprise factor, the performances and arrangements are of very high quality.
If you give O Emmanuel a try, you might not know what you think of the whole thing at first. But don’t worry, as I found out after a half-dozen listens, you will soon find that you love what what’s going on here.
The album begins with a prologue to the Advent theme: “Gabriel’s Message,” a song about the Annunciation that uses musical themes from the familiar carol, “The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came”. Here, Gabriel brings a message to Mary, but Wright universalizes the experience for our Advent consideration.
As Wright said in an audio interview, the Advent question he wanted to focus on is: “How is God inviting you to say Yes?” For Mary helps us understand that God is inviting us to something exciting, to something more than we could have imagined. “What we always dreamed for our life could actually be true,” suggested Wright.
For the next seven songs, the album uses the messianic titles for Christ from the ‘O Antiphons’ to take us on a musical journey. These titles are the first words after the word ‘O’ in the antiphons. The way the ‘O Antiphons’ work during Advent Vespers is that you pray them before and after praying Mary’s ‘Magnificat’.
One of the fun things about the ‘O Antiphons’ is that these titles form an acrostic. If you take the titles backwards from December 23 to December 17, they spell out a Latin phrase when you take the first letter from each title: Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia. The Latin phrase is ERO CRAS, which means, “I will be [with you] tomorrow.”
The antiphons are especially inspiring because of their antiquity. They go back to the time of Pope Gregory the Great. Passed down to us in Latin, they reference texts of the Old Testament that prophesy the Messiah. They invoke Jesus with their Latin titles: “Wisdom” (Sapientia), “Lord” (Adonai), “Root” (Radix), “Key” (Clavis), “Star” (Oriens), “King” (Rex), and “God is With Us” (Emmanuel).
Wright explained in an interview how he took the antiphons as the basis for his Advent composition and then expanded them into a full Christmas work: “The ‘O Antiphons,’ used in the Catholic Church since at least the eighth century, are a set of hymns sung at evening prayers during the final seven days of Advent, December 17-23. Each of the seven texts addresses Christ with an illustrative title, briefly describes the title, and is followed by ‘Veni’ (‘Come’), calling for deliverance using language based on the aforementioned title. I have continued the narrative through Christ’s birth by including two additional texts in Movements 8 and 9 for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” he said.
Wright’s musical style is hard to categorize. Although trained as a jazz improviser at the New School for Jazz in NYC, he also has a passion for sacred music. While with the U.S. Naval Academy Band, he also performed with the Caribbean Jazz Project: Afro Bop Alliance, including a recording with vibraphonist Dave Samuels. That album was nominated for a Grammy for ‘Best Latin Jazz Album’ and it also won the Latin Grammy in the same category.
He brings this sort of adventurous and wide-ranging musical sensibility to the O Emmanuel project. First, as he told CWR in a recent interview, he looked at the texts of the ‘O Antiphons’, and then figured out how he wanted to set them musically. “There are similarities between certain groupings of the ‘O Antiphons.’ The first three Antiphons point toward extremely ancient names for Christ: Wisdom, Lord, Root of Jesse. The movements progress, just like salvation history, until we arrive at the fulfillment of the prophecy, the birth of Christ. I thought I could highlight this progression by having the texts that spoke about the most ancient ideas use the most ancient sounding music: Gregorian chant. As a result, the first three movements are infused, to varying degrees, with the original Gregorian chant melodies. I also wanted this piece to include the more familiar rhythms of contemporary music, which were communicated through the children’s choir. I used the piece to survey many of the musical techniques that have been used throughout the development of Christian sacred music. My thought was that as the text progressed forward in history, so too would its musical treatment,” explained Wright.
Thus, tracks 2 to 4 on the CD take up the first three antiphons:
December 17
O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
O Wisdom that comest out of the mouth of the Most High (Sirach 24:5),
that reachest from one end to another, and orderest all things mightily and sweetly (Wisdom 8:1):
come to teach us the way of prudence (Proverbs 9:6).
December 18
O Adonai, dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extenso.
O Lord (Exodus 6:2, Vulgate), and Ruler of the house of Israel,
Who didst appear unto Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), and gavest him the law in Sinai (Exodus 20):
come to redeem us with an outstretched arm (Exodus 15:12-13).
December 19
O Radix Iesse, qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare.
O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people (Isaiah 11:10),
at Whom the kings shall shut their mouths (Isaiah 52:15), Whom the Gentiles shall seek:
come to deliver us, do not tarry (Habakkuk 2:3).
In the last of these three (“Radix”), Wright surprises the listener by bringing in strains of “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”. And then the surprises keep coming as Wright deliberately decides to confront the themes of discomfort and anxiety with the next two tracks (5 and 6), “Clavis” and “Oriens”:
December 20
O Clavis David et sceptrum domus Israel,
qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.
O Key of David (Isaiah 22:23), and Sceptre of the house of Israel (Genesis 49:10),
that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth:
come to liberate the prisoner from the prison, and them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death (Psalm 107: 10, 14).
December 21
O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae et sol iustitiae:
veni et illumina sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.
O Dayspring, (Zechariah 3:8; Jeremiah 23:5), Brightness of the everlasting light (Wisdom 7:26), Sun of justice (Malachi 3:20):
come to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Isaiah 9:1; Luke 1:79).
What I think is so funny is that it sounds like a small animal gets loose in the percussion section in “Clavis”. The unusual percussion sounds thereby jolt the listener into paying extra special attention. Then, once expectations have been thus heightened, “Oriens” begins with a crazy tambourine rhythm. It soon turns the entire track into a jazz trio musical number. Wright really shines in this, his area of personal performance expertise (check out his album Inward Looking Out which got rave reviews in 2014). So, it is an extra bonus when the jazz trio resurfaces in track 9 (“VIII. When the Sun Rises in the Morning”). Consider it an enhanced Charlie Brown Christmas treat for a new generation.
Wright explained how it was the December 21 antiphon (“Oriens”, track 6) that became a gateway of inspiration for him: “I started writing the music by picking the text that resonated most with me, walking back and forth in my studio, and repeating over and over ‘O Radiant dawn, shine on those who dwell in darkness…’ I must have tried it with one hundred different melodies and rhythms until I started hearing a tambourine in the background of my thoughts. At first I pushed it away, but the rhythm kept coming through more emphatically until I heard the children’s voices burst out in my imagination, singing the melody that can be heard in ‘Oriens.’ I wasn’t sure where it came from, but it seemed like the perfect way to express this joyous and hope-filled text. I decided O Emmanuel would be a journey through time through the lens of musical styles both old and new,” he said.
It’s interesting that Wright took his inspiration here, because the “Oriens” antiphon for December 21 refers to the Canticle of Zechariah (Luke 1), the “Benedictus” (“The daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow”), which is a truly magnificent canticle. No doubt many a great composer is inspired by its lofty text and strives to equal it with a musical setting. I really like that we can credit the birth of this amazing album to Wright’s meditation on it.
The last four tracks of disc begin with Wright’s setting of the last two ‘O Antiphons’:
December 22
O Rex gentium et desideratus earum,
lapis angularis qui facis utraque unum:
veni et salva hominem quel de limo formasti.
O King of the Gentiles (Jeremiah 10:7), yea, and desire thereof (Haggai 2:7),
O Corner-stone (Isaiah 28:16), that makest of two one (Ephesians 2:14):
come to save man, whom Thou hast made out of the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7).
December 23
O Emmanuel, rex et legifer noster,
expectatio gentium et salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Dominus Deus noster.
O Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14), our King and our Law-giver (Isaiah 33:22),
Longing of the Gentiles, yea, and salvation thereof (Genesis 49:10; John 4:42):
come to save us, O Lord our God! (Isaiah 37:20).
On December 24, the following day, the feast of the Nativity begins with first Vespers. Hence, like any good show, all the stops are pulled out at the end, and here the album crescendos to a stunning Christmas finale. Wright shifts from an Advent to a Christmas theme with the brilliant tracks, “When The Sun Rises In The Morning Sky” and “Christ the Lord Is Born Today”. At the very end, the children’s choir sings softly and slowly fades out, leaving the listener wanting more.
Wright earned his Masters of Sacred Music from the University of Notre Dame and is currently working on his doctorate. During the 2016–2017 academic year, he is studying at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome and interning with the Sistine Chapel Choir. Currently Director of Music at the Church at Point O’ Woods on Fire Island, NY, his academic studies are leading him to write his dissertation on early Baroque oratorio.
I highly recommended adding this album to your Advent listening repertoire. Its combination of children’s voices, jazz piano trio, adult vocal soloists, and the incredibly talented instrumentalists of Fifth House Ensemble, is a truly unique experience. Recorded at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, the album was produced and edited by Grammy Award-winning producer Thomas Moore and engineered by Grammy Award-winning engineer Robert Friedrich of Five/Four Productions, Ltd.; both of them have done a superb job, the album sounds fantastic.
Related at CWR: "New Album for Advent & Christmas Melds Wide Range of Musical Styles" (Nov 7, 2016) | An interview with composer J.J. Wright
About the Author
Christopher S. Morrissey
Christopher S. Morrissey teaches Greek and Latin on the Faculty of Philosophy at the Seminary of Christ the King located at the Benedictine monastery of Westminster Abbey in Mission, British Columbia. He also lectures in logic and philosophy at Trinity Western University. He is a Fellow of the Adler-Aquinas Institute and a Member of the Inklings Institute of Canada. He studied Ancient Greek and Latin at the University of British Columbia and has taught classical mythology, history, and ancient languages at Simon Fraser University, where he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on René Girard. His book of Hesiod’s poetry, Theogony / Works and Days, is published by Talonbooks.
The University of Notre Dame's Sacred Music Academy will hold open auditions for singers up to age 17 to join the Notre Dame Children's Choir. NDCC is comprised of several ensembles with singers divided by age and ability. Learn more about our choirs here.
Open auditions will be held from 3:30–5:30 p.m. on August 23, 24, and 25, 2016, at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, 115 S. Frances St. in South Bend.
Auditions will be facilitated by NDCC conductor, Mark Doerries, and NDCC Administrator, Suze Villano. Parents or guardians are welcome to stay and observe. Each singer will be led through a brief exercise that will test his or her range. The singer will be asked to sing a series of pitches back to the facilitator. Finally, the singer may be asked to sing a simple song, such as "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," or "Are You Sleeping?" in a round with one of the facilitators.
Register online and a member of the NDCC staff will contact you to schedule an audition date and to answer any questions or concerns.
Please direct any questions or concerns about the upcoming auditions to ndcchoir@nd.edu. We look forward to meeting you and your singer(s) very soon!
The Sacred Music Academy is the ecumenical community engagement arm of Sacred Music at Notre Dame and oversees the Notre Dame Children's Choir, the Notre Dame Organ Training Program, the Children's Community Choral Festival, summer programs for youth and adults, as well as parish-based choral and organ programs.
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The goal of Sacred Music at Notre Dame is to keep alive great musical traditions of the Western world. By training young people in the history and breadth of sacred music, the program aims to reinvigorate Christian churches through a new generation of parish musicians that can help lead liturgical services and also create new music.
This feature on Sacred Music at Notre Dame includes a video and interview with former NDCC Cantabile Choir Director Samantha Dotterweich.
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The Elkhart Community Children's Choir is a division of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir for singers ages 7 to 10 in the Elkhart community. The program is free to all involved.
The Choir is hosted by Saint John’s Episcopal Church and sings for special community-wide ecumenical services in the afternoons near Christmas, Easter, and for the Notre Dame Children’s Choir’s Festival.
We rehearse at St. John’s Episcopal on Wednesday afternoons from 6–6:45pm beginning October 7, 2015.
Location: 226 West Lexington Avenue, Elkhart IN, 46516-3128, on the corner of Lexington Street and Third Avenue.
Performance Dates:
December 20 - Community Lessons and Carols Service
March 20 - Passiontide Concert
April 30 - Notre Dame Children’s Choir Community Festival
Children of all faiths are invited to join by registering below. Do not hesitate to contact us with questions.
Director: Emily Meixner, Emily.M.Meixner.8@nd.edu
We look forward to this new adventure in Elkhart!
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On Saturday (June 13), the University of Notre Dame Children’s Choir will perform at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church in South Bend at 4 p.m. The concert, the start of a national tour, is free and open to the public.
The ecumenical Notre Dame Children’s Choir was founded in 2013 on the belief that children singing sacred music are a powerful force for spiritual renewal, community healing, and cultural change in our churches and concert halls.
What began with 20 singers rapidly grew to more than 120 choristers in five choirs, a regional choral festival, an international conductor exchange, new commissions, and an international conference on the role of the child chorister in the church of the future.
The June 2015 national tour includes stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis.
The children’s choir is part of Sacred Music at Notre Dame, which offers fully funded master’s and doctoral degrees in choral conducting, voice, and organ. Led by renowned scholars, Sacred Music at Notre Dame seeks to build creative, multigenerational partnerships between academia and communities of worship. Graduate students in the program act as teachers and vocal coaches for the children’s choir and serve in local congregations, preparing to establish or reinvigorate child-centered church music programs as they move forward in their careers.
For more information about the Notre Dame Children’s Choir, visit sma.nd.edu/choir.
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The voices of 40 children will be added to the University of Notre Dame’s internationally renowned choirs this fall.
According to Mark B. Doerries, conductor of The University of Notre Dame Children’s Choir, “Our program is geared toward three populations: the children of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s, and Holy Cross faculty and staff; children from local Catholic and Protestant churches that do not currently have children’s choirs; and home schooling families who may not have access to artistic children’s programs.” Participation in the ecumenical choir is free, and information on auditions and registration is available online.
Doerries said a principal concern of the new choir is to reinvigorate children’s sacred choral music and education in South Bend area churches. In addition to singing ecumenical sacred music, choristers, ages 8 to 14, will receive voice lessons led by graduate students of the Masters of Sacred Music program at Notre Dame, take part in a musical retreat at the Michiana Christian Service Camp each fall, perform in a sacred music drama each spring and participate in an annual festival of local church choirs with a nationally recognized choral conductor.
Contact: Mark Doerries, 574-631-6528, mdoerries@nd.edu
Originally published by Michael O. Garvey at news.nd.edu on August 06, 2013.
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