In collaboration with the highly acclaimed classical musical trio The Priests, the Pontifical Irish College is hosting a Musical pilgrimage in celebration of our 100th anniversary on Rome’s Coelian Hill.

The five-day pilgrimage will include workshops facilitated by The Priests, liturgical celebrations in some of Rome’s most historical Churches, and the opportunity to perform at a final evening concert on the grounds of the Pontifical Irish College.

If you are a Church musician from Ireland and would like to attend this unique experience, this pilgrimage offers an exceptional opportunity to deepen your musical and liturgical skills under the guidance of internationally renowned performers, to take part in a landmark moment in the life of the Irish Church in Rome, and to return home enriched, equipped to share newly acquired insights, repertoire, and inspiration within your own parish and wider faith community.

Overview

The mission of Ars Nova Press is the championing of exceptional music literature that has not found publication acceptance elsewhere. Our focus is on timeless artistic quality over commercial trends.

Through our sacred music division, we are passionate to create a renaissance of new sacred music - works that are suitable for Mass and religious ceremonies.

​We hope this competition encourages young composers to write well-crafted sacred music. All compositions that receive an award will be published and recorded by Ars Nova.

Rules and general information

Competition opens on April 15, 2026 and closes on July 15, 2026 and is open worldwide
Entry Fee: $50 USD
Age Requirement: Composer must be 35 years and under - as of April 15, 2026

Piece Requirements:
A choral work scored for SATB or any combination of three voices, a cappella
Piece length between 3 and 5 minutes
The work should be suitable for use in a Mass or religious service
The text of the piece must be from Sacred Scripture

Works are judged on creative use of technique, expression, and accessibility
Works will be evaluated via a blind jury process

The results will be announced by September 30, 2026

The Portsmouth Gregorian Chant Course 2026 is delighted to announce that Abbot Xavier Perrin OSB, the esteemed Abbot of Our Lady of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight, will be joining its team of teaching experts. Abbot Xavier brings a wealth of experience and spiritual depth to the programme, deepening the course’s commitment to nurturing both musical skill and spiritual understanding in Gregorian Chant.

7 days. 450 singers. Historic churches. Plainchant and polyphony. Each summer the Dominican Liturgical Center of Kraków organizes a week-long conference on liturgical music, with workshops, concerts, talks on spirituality and sacred art, etc. It is held at the medieval priory of Holy Trinity in the heart of the old town in Kraków and gathers over 450 music lovers from Poland and, in the last four years, from all over the world! In 2021 we successfully expanded our program by adding workshops, liturgies, and talks in English. The conference is called the Extraordinary Music Workshop (click here to watch the EMW 2023 recap video) and is designed to have participants experience the profound beauty of ancient musical traditions of the Church in their organic development and in the spirit of continuity, as envisioned by the Second Vatican Council. That is why we offer workshops in Gregorian and Byzantine chant, as well as in traditional and contemporary sacred polyphony. Here you can learn more about our program, watch videos and see pictures from previous editions and read testimonies of our participants: www.extraordinary.music.

Our faculty in the past have included, among others, Fr. Robert Mehlhart, OP, PhD (President of Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome), Fr. James Moore, OP, DMA (Oakland, CA), Fr. Innocent Smith, OP, PhD (Washington, DC), Dr. Elena Bird-Zolnick (St. Paul, MN), Mr. Christopher Mueller (Louisville, KY), Ms. Grace Feltoe (Perth, Australia), Fr. Dawid Kusz, OP, DMA (Kraków, Poland), Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP (Oxford, UK), and Mr. Andriy Shkrabyuk (Lviv, Ukraine).


The next edition will be held in Kraków July 6-12, 2026. You will be able to study choral music with Dr. Elena Bird-Zolnick and Mr. Christopher Mueller, learn Gregorian Chant with Prof. Susi Ferfoglia and Prof. Michal Slawecki and even dive into the mysterious beauty of Byzantine Chant with Mr. Andriy Shkrabyuk. Save the date now! Registration will open in mid-January and we hope you can join us this summer. Go to our website to learn more and sign up: www.extraordinary.music 


We, the staff of the Dominican Liturgical Center of Kraków, would be overjoyed to be your hosts this summer. Let me know if you have any questions regarding the Workshop. 


With gratitude and prayer for your important service to the Church,

Fr. Łukasz Miśko, OP, & the Dominican Liturgical Center Staff

email: l.misko@dlcenter.org