Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Youth choirs come together for Pueri Cantores festival
Youth choirs come together for Pueri Cantores festival
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 20, 2009
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Emma Toppi, Alexa Orosz and Colleen Lynch, members od St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Livonia, choir rehearse for the upcoming concert. |
Detroit Youth choirs from Michigan, Ohio and Ontario will be coming together next Saturday, March 28, to practice and perform great music from the Catholic choral heritage.
And the public is invited to hear the results of their efforts when the combined choirs sing for the 5 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament that day. Archbishop Allen Vigneron will be the celebrant.
Pueri Cantores
The American Federation Pueri Cantores, founded in 1953, is dedicated to:
Enhancing spiritual well-being of young singers through the performance of sacred, spiritual, folk and patriotic music.
Becoming a community resource through performances in religious, cultural, healthcare centers and community settings.
Developing cultural compassion through travel and the building of national and international friendships.
Creating collaborations between schools, churches, businesses, families and communities.
Elevating education in the arts resulting in choral excellence, spiritual growth and academic enrichment.
Providing encouragement and information to member choirs through curricular and repertoire guidelines, newsletters and an Internet site.
Attracting professional choral directors to instill those values and goals embraced by the organization.
Increasing choir participation to achieve 400 choirs involving 10,000 children.
For more information about the American Federation Pueri Cantores visit, Pueri Cantores. |
The cathedral will host a regional festival of the American Federation Pueri Cantores, the national student choral association.
"This is new for the Archdiocese of Detroit and the whole region," says Nancy Deacon, director of music at the cathedral.
"It's about learning and performing good Catholic choral literature learning the Latin and doing Latin chant," she says of the event.
Participating choirs from the archdiocese include the children's choirs from the cathedral, from St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Livonia, and from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Temperance.
Also taking part will be youth choirs from St. Francis of Assisi, Ann Arbor, and from St. Mary Parish in Dansville, here in Michigan, as well as from St. Mary Parish in Grafton, Ontario.
The children will arrive at the cathedral just before noon, rehearse all afternoon, and then sing at the Mass. They will work under the direction of composer and conductor Paul French, director of the Williams Ferris Chorale in Chicago.
They will sing the Agnus Dei and Kyrie from the Gregorian Mass of the Angels, the "Ave Verum" by 19th-century French composer Gabriel Faure, "Jesus Here Present" by 13th-century composer Laudario Di Cortona, and "How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place" by contemporary American composer Kenneth Kosche.
"It's a very challenging repertoire," says Cindy Stempin, music director at St. Michael the Archangel Parish. Stempin says about two dozen of her choir's 43 members will be participating in the festival. The children range from third-graders through eighth-graders.
"It's a nice experience for them," she says, adding, "A lot of the songs are in Latin, which we do."
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, episcopal moderator of the American Federation Pueri Cantores and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has written of the organization: "For choirmasters and music directors, Pueri Cantores can be the fulfillment of desire to bring the voices of young singers to the highest musical standards in the service of God."
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