The 24th gathering of the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians (CRCCM) <www.crccm.net> took place January 8–11, 2007, in Milwaukee at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. CRCCM sponsors a conference each year in January. Meetings in recent years have been held in St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Omaha and Cologne, Germany.
Michael Batcho, cathedral music director, served as this year’s conference host. Originally built in 1857 and renovated in 2001, St. John’s Cathedral now houses two organs, the 1966 Noehren gallery organ and a new apse organ built by the Nichols & Simpson Company in 2005. The cathedral served as the center for the daily sung liturgies, business meetings, presentations, and concerts. Attendees were housed in the Pfister Hotel, a historical downtown Milwaukee landmark, graced with the largest hotel collection of Victorian art in the world.
Two major presentations were made to the conference. Fr. Jordan Kelly, OP, presented “True, Good and Beautiful: Shaping our Culture and the Role of the Cathedral Church” and Leo Nestor, professor of music at the Catholic University of America and a founding member of CRCCM, addressed “The Musician in the Church: Reflections on Vocation and Formation in the Christian Community and in the Catholic Church.” Lynn Trapp (St. Olaf Church, Minneapolis) gave a session on newer organ repertoire for the liturgical year. Msgr. James Moroney, executive director of the Secretariat for the Liturgy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), reported on the recent Directory on Music and the Liturgy approved by the USCCB, the consultation conducted by the music sub-committee toward the revisions of Music in Catholic Worship and Liturgical Music Today, and updated the conference on progress of the translation of the Roman Missal into English, providing excerpts from the Order of Mass.
Two public musical performances were heard at the cathedral during the conference. Sr. Mary Jane Wagner, OSF, the former cathedral organist, presented a noontime organ recital playing Marcel Dupré’s Variations sur un Noël, Toccata in F by J. S. Bach, and the Rhapsody of Praise by Theophane Hytrek, OSF. An evening concert by the Milwaukee Choral Artists, a female ensemble conducted by Sharon Hansen with Jeffrey Peterson, organist, presented “Exultate: The Music of Milwaukee’s School Sisters of St. Francis.” This concert featured choral and organ music written by and for the School Sisters of St. Francis, a community distinguished by their work as artists, composers, music educators and parish musicians in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Fr. Ken Augustine, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, led a tour of significant churches and organs in the greater Milwaukee area. Attendees visited the Sacred Heart School of Theology, the Basilica of St. Josaphat, St. Anthony Catholic Church, and the Chapel of the School Sisters of St. Francis where the annual CRCCM members’ new music reading session was conducted.
Business sessions were conducted each day by CRCCM chairperson, Anthony DiCello. The major focus of these sessions was the crafting of a statement on the formation of liturgical musicians directed to the USCCB Secretariat for the Liturgy. Plans for two new projects were also formalized: Making Music in the Cathedral: A Cathedral Musician’s Primer and A Profile of Roman Catholic Cathedral Music Programs in the US.
