Hi all,

Our parish will be hosting the Milwaukee Youth Choral Festival for Pueri Cantores on February 28th. I would love to have anyone remotely nearby bring a choir to this festival.

Housed out of the Vatican, Pueri Cantores is the official student choral organization of the Catholic Church. They host youth choral festivals around the world with renowned Catholic conductors. The festival at my parish - St. Frances Cabrini in West Bend - is one of 18 festivals in the United States this year.

For the festival day, directors bring their choristers in the morning and work all day with the conductor and end by singing as one big choir for a festival Mass celebrated by a bishop. This year's festival Mass will be celebrated by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay. Our conductor will be Lee Gwozdz, who has been honored as Musician of the Year by NPM in the past as well as having conducted choirs for Papal Masses with Pope St. John Paul II. My choir kids LOVE the festival and it is a big highlight of our choir year. The American Federation of Pueri Cantores is also the only music partner of the NCEA and offers many resources for parishes and schools from public domain editions of music, hymn recommendations for school Masses, choral music suggestions for treble choirs, webinars, etc...

The music for the festival can look intimidating - Kyrie from the Missa Orbis Factor, Sanctus from Mass XVII, If Ye Love Me by Philip Wilby, Lord for Thy Tender Mercy's Sake by Farrant, etc... - but choirs are encouraged to prepare what their choristers are capable of singing and know that when we all come together for the festival, it somehow always works out with all parts covered. We had some parishes and schools that only had about 4 students last year but they still had a very positive experience and got just as much out of the festival as the large groups. If you think it looks good but are nervous or hesitant, please reach out to me to talk through how we could make this a feasible option for your choir.

If you would like to read more about the American Federation of Pueri Cantores, please visit their website at pcchoirs.org.
You can also reach out to me with any questions about the Festival. We had 100 students participate last year - up from 50 the year before - and are hoping to grow it to 200 this year. I'm attaching the flyer for the festival so that you can read more about the day.

God bless,
Susan