CharlesW,

I have been reading A LOT about Flor Peeters over the last few months.

(Of course I have known about him for years, and my teacher was his student.)

Anyhow, the more I read, the more I am AMAZED at how much he did during his life !!!!

For those who are interested in the life and work of Fr. Carlo Rossini, here's some biographical information culled from the Pittsburgh diocesan archives:

Carlo Rossini was born in the ancient Roman city of Osimo (Ancona), Italy on March 3, 1890. Following his ordination in 1913 as a priest of the Pious Society of St. Charles Borromeo, his superiors sent him to study at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. Fr. Rossini came to Pittsburgh in 1923, when he became organist and choirmaster at Epiphany Church.

In January 1927, Fr. Rossini became organist and choirmaster at Pittsburgh’s St. Paul Cathedral. Three years later, Bishop Hugh Boyle named Rossini chairman of the Diocesan Music Commission.

Fr. Rossini was called to Rome by Pope Pius XII through a May 14, 1949 letter sent to Bishop Boyle by the Acting Secretary of State, Msgr. Giovanni Montini (later elected as Pope Paul VI). Rossini was named Secretary General of the Italian Association of St. Cecilia. His responsibility was to coordinate the music used in Rome for the 1950 Holy Year Jubilee celebrations. Fr. Thomas Jackson was then appointed Acting Secretary of Pittsburgh’s Music Commission while Fr. Rossini was chairman in absentia. From 1950 on, Fr. Rossini returned to Pittsburgh for several periods of time, during which he continued to attend meetings of the Music Commission.

When Fr. Rossini left Pittsburgh, Mr. Paul Koch was named organist and choirmaster of St. Paul Cathedral in October of 1949. Bishop Dearden reorganized the Music Commission in November of 1957. Shortly thereafter, Fr. Carlo Rossini, chairman since 1930, was named Honorary Chairman.

After leaving Pittsburgh, Fr. Rossini lived in New York City for a time, and was kept abreast of musical happenings in the Pittsburgh Diocese. Fr. Rossini was distressed to hear that Dr. Clifford Bennett (whose competency Rossini had earlier decried) was to organize a Gregorian Institute Five Day Workshop in July 1962 held under the auspices of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. In a February 19, 1962 letter to Bishop John Wright, Fr. Rossini wrote from St. Joseph’s Rectory in New York that “…I wish, with regret, to submit hereby, most respectfully, my resignation as Honorary Chairman of the Pgh. Dioc. Music Commission.”

Dear to Fr. Rossini’s heart was his establishment of the Instituto San Carlo, a type of Italian Boys Town, in Osimo, Italy, the city of Rossini’s birth. This was his second vocation, in a sense. What is sometimes ignored in the reminiscences of Rossini’s life is his philanthropy. The money that he realized from his publications went into the construction and continuation of this institution.

Fr. Rossini died on August 6, 1975.