Speakers
Chris de Silva
Chris de Silva is originally from Singapore and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Chris is a graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied Music Composition and Film Scoring. He is a composer, arranger and recording artist at GIA Publications, Inc. and shares his gift of music ministry at national conferences, diocesan and parish retreats around the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. He has served at several faith communities in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, including Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church (Los Nietos) and St. Brendan Church (Los Angeles). He recently joined the campus ministry team at Loyola Marymount University as Associate Director of Music and Liturgy.
CCMLA Keynote: Musical issues in contemporary worship: striking a balance between tradition and current styles.
Alan Hommerding
Alan Hommerding is Senior Liturgy Publications Editor at World Library Publications, where he has worked for more than twenty years. He is a published author, hymn text writer, and composer, presenting workshops on liturgy and music throughout the US. Alan serves on the music advisory staff for Chicago's archdiocesan Office for Divine Worship and is a past convener of the Liturgical Music Seminar of the North American Academy of Liturgy. He is a contributor to the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, and his articles and reviews have appeared in Pastoral Music, Rite, Catechumenate, Ministry and Liturgy, The American Organist, Choral Journal, The Hymn, Antiphon, Celebrate! and Christianity and the Arts.
CCMLA Keynote: Whither (or wither?) the Hymnal?
Johan van Parys
Johan van Parys, Ph.D. a native of Belgium holds graduate degrees in art history and comparative religious studies from the Catholic University in Louvain, Belgium and a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
He has been Director of Liturgy and the Sacred Arts at The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis since 1995. In addition, Johan teaches at St. John's School of Theology. He is founding member and current Chair of the MN/ND Chapter of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums. Johan enjoys writing, making presentations and consulting with parishes on a variety of topics relating to liturgy and the arts. His book Symbols that Surround Us was published in 2012.
CCMLA Keynotes: Timeless Hospitality. Integrating an ever-changing and multicultural community and Creating a Place for Worship. Art and Environment for our Times.
Rita Ferrone
Rita Ferrone is a recognized leader in the US Catholic Church in the field of liturgy. She is the author of several books, including a commentary on the liturgy document of Vatican II, Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium, for which she won a Catholic Press Association award. She is a contributor to Catholic periodicals, such as Commonweal and Worship, and to mainstream media such as The Washington Post and CNN. Her Commonweal article on the Exsultet, "Virgil and the Vigil," won a Best of the Christian Press award from the Associated Church Press.
Her church work has focused mainly on liturgical renewal and adult initiation (RCIA). She has served in parishes, dioceses, and national settings as a liturgist, teacher, conference speaker, and as a writer of textbooks and resource materials. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University, and teaches in a summer seminar for congregational leaders at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She blogs at the PrayTell Blog, dotCommonweal, and TeamRCIA.
CCMLA Keynotes: The Future of Vatican II Liturgical Renewal and The Vision of Pope Francis for the Church
Steven Warner
Steve Warner (B.A., Religious Studies, St. Michael's College, 1977; M.A., Liturgical Studies, Notre Dame, 1980) is the founder and Director of the Notre Dame Folk Choir. He has been a member of the Campus Ministry staff since 1979.
Under his guidance, the Folk Choir has continued to develop new ritual song on Notre Dame's campus and throughout the English-speaking world. The ensemble has toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada; in 2013, they celebrated 25 years and nearly a quarter of a million miles of journeying, both on the North American continent and to England, Ireland and Scotland.
In 2008, he was recognized as NPM's Musician of the Year.
Steve's sacred music is published through WLP Publications of Chicago. Songs of the Notre Dame Folk Choir, their repertoire series, includes such standards as "Set Your Heart on the Higher Gifts," "Lead, Kindly Light" and "The Lord's Prayer." In the past three years, WLP released two recorded collections of sacred music by the Folk Choir, Songs of Saints and Scholars - their celebration of a generation of Irish travels; and From Gethsemani to Galway- a live recording that featured more than fifteen hundred singers at the Louisville NPM convention in 2011.
In anticipation of the changes to the liturgy, Steve developed a new liturgical planning site, www.newmanhymnal.org; this site is now the teaching tool for residence hall liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and her overseas academic programs.
In 2011, with longtime collaborator and colleague Karen Kirner, the score for Mass for Our Lady was produced: a comprehensive new setting for the liturgy written specifically for both organ and guitar. Along with the Mass of Charity and Love, they are two of World Library's principal new mass settings, following the introduction of the Roman Missal.
CCMLA Keynote: Does Sacred Music Dare Be Joyful? - Lessons Learned from Millenials
Walter Tambor
Walter Tambor serves as Director of Contemporary and World Music at The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, MN. He directs Mundus, contemporary and world music ensemble; Juventus, the instrumental and choral ensemble for youth grades 8-12; and assembles various liturgical music ensembles from world cultures with the goal of authentically sharing a part of the world church with the local Basilica community. He is also Accompanist/Assistant Director of the Minneapolis Youth Chorus, the Children’s Choir of the Minnesota Chorale. Before coming to Minneapolis in 2004, Walter was Assistant Organist and Chapel Choir director at Saint Clement Church in Chicago, IL; on staff at the Chicago Children’s Choir Academy, an interracial and multicultural choral music education organization promoting musical excellence for children grades 4-8; and DePaul University Community Music Division, where he provided private piano instruction to mostly African-American and Hispanic foster children ages 8-12, mentoring children and promoting increased confidence and self-worth through weekly lessons and periodic performance opportunities. Mr. Tambor is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and DePaul University.
CCMLA Breakouts: World Music Resources and World Music Repertoire for the Liturgical Year
Mundus
Mundus, the Basilica of Saint Mary's Contemporary and World Music Ensemble, enlivens the 11:30am liturgy two times a month. Its repertoire includes music of contemporary American composers, and various genre of music from North and South America, Africa, and Asia, with a mission to share music of the World Church with our Local Church.