Philadelphia is a city of a million and a half people (the greater metro area boasts closer to five million), and, though it's been on the decline socially and economically for nearly two generations, one would think that there'd still be enough people with interest in Gregorian chant in a city this large. Alas, of the few schola directors around here, all of us face the same problem: We don't have enough people; or perhaps it's better to say that our ensembles would benefit from a slightly larger participation.

Now there are a number of possible explanations for this, including the reputation of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to promote a very rubrical but workaday liturgical style. This is one reason to suspect that there is potential interest out there in parishes where people might have no idea what in the world is going on in other places. Maybe that's wishful thinking. Maybe it's not.

I'm going to try something, to see if we can't tease people out of the woodwork. I've started a Facebook group, Philly Gregorian Chant: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111014778933789&ref=mf
If you live in the Philly area, please join it. We need to find each other. And if you currently hang your hat at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople or some other such faraway place, please don't join it; I don't mean offense, but the purpose of this group is to find potential singers in the flesh, as it were.

And tell your friends in Philly that there are schola directors looking for them.

I should add that I have no intention of restricting membership in my own schola to Catholics, or even to Christians. Some of the most interested people in chant come from the most surprising places.