MTSM Hosts Solemn Vespers to Begin 2026-27 Music & Liturgy Season
09.15.26
The Sacred Music Institute (SMI) at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology (MTSM) hosted its first Music & Liturgy event of 2026-27 on September 13 with Solemn Vespers and an organ recital in the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great.
The Vespers program, featuring the Athenaeum Chorale and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Latin Schola, featured the Chorale and an orchestra of specialist Baroque performers from around the country perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat in D Major. The orchestra consisted of violin, viola, cello, violone, flauto traverso, oboe, oboe d’amore, bassoon, trumpet, timpani, organ and harpsichord. According to Dr. Christopher Holman, Director of the Sacred Music Institute, it is believed that this was the first time Bach’s Magnificat has been performed on period instruments in the Cincinnati area.
Prior to the Solemn Vespers, an organ recital was performed by Daniel Grotz, the organ scholar at St. Gertrude in Madeira. Grotz’s program was entitled A Solemn Meditation on Christ’s Earthly Journey and featured works by Demessieux, Schroeder, Bach, Langlais, Couperin, Brahms, Widor and Reger. You can watch the entirety of Grotz’s recital below.
The next Music & Liturgy event at MTSM will be on Sunday, November 15 at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great, MTSM’s annual organ recital. This year’s recital will be performed by Dr. Jonathan Moyer from the Oberlin Conservatory. The recital is Co-Sponsored by the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. For more information on MTSM’s Music & Liturgy season and Sacred Music at MTSM, click here.
To see photos from the evening, taken by Danny Schneible, scroll down.
