“Chesterton’s Carol”
“Chesterton’s Carol“ by Mark Nowakowski has become an instant Christmas classic, gaining over 26,000 YouTube views.
“De Profundis Clamavi”
Sacred Music
“De Profundis Clamavi”
Mark Nowakowski D.M.A. (Composer), Rebekah Wu (Conductor; Soprano)
Lenten Prayer Service (2022)
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“O Mater Dolorosa”
Sacred Music
“O Mater Dolorosa”
Catholic Sacred Music Project (Partner), Mark Nowakowski D.M.A. (Composer), Martin Baker (Conductor)
Renaissance! New Sacred Music at St. Patrick's Seminary Chapel (2022)
Renaissance! New Sacred Music brought together a 40-voice choir of young professional and aspiring church musicians for a concert celebrating the work of living Catholic composers at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park in July 2022.
Presented in connection with the Sacred Liturgy Summit and the Catholic Sacred Music Project’s Choral Festival, the concert was conducted by internationally renowned conductor Martin Baker, former Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral.
The program featured new works by living Catholic composers drawn from New Sacred Music for Parish Liturgies, a collection developed with the support of the Benedict XVI Institute to make beautiful, serious contemporary sacred music available to parish choirs.
Bringing together emerging Catholic musicians, contemporary composers, and one of the world’s leading conductors of sacred music, Renaissance! offered a glimpse of a living Catholic musical tradition, one rooted in the Church’s great inheritance while cultivating the composers and musicians who will carry that tradition forward.
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“Ad Te Levavi”
Sacred Music
“Ad Te Levavi”
Alfred Calabrese D.M. (Conductor), Band of Voices (Choir), Mark Nowakowski D.M.A. (Composer)
Miserere: A Lenten Service (2023)
Miserere: A Lenten Prayer Service brought the great tradition of Catholic sacred music into conversation with a new generation of Catholic composers at San Francisco’s historic Mission Dolores Basilica on March 11, 2023.
Presided over by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, the service paired Renaissance masterpieces by Palestrina, Victoria, and Orlando di Lasso with contemporary settings of the same sacred texts by living Catholic composers.
The program featured three world premieres commissioned by the Benedict XVI Institute culminating in Frank La Rocca’s Miserere.
The works were performed by the Dallas-based 20-voice professional ensemble Band of Voices under the direction of Dr. Alfred Calabrese, making the choir’s West Coast debut.
By placing the music of living Catholic composers alongside the masters of the Renaissance, Miserere embodied one of the Benedict XVI Institute’s central convictions: the Church’s great tradition of sacred art is not merely something to preserve, but a living inheritance from which new works of beauty can continue to emerge.
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