MTSM Announces 2025-26 Music & Liturgy Series

Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology (MTSM) is excited to announce its Sacred Music Institute (SMI) schedule for 2025-26. This academic year’s calendar, the first put together by MTSM’s new Director of Music and Director of the Sacred Music Institute Dr. Christopher Holman, features four solemn vespers (three of which have organ recitals prior to it), two stand-alone organ recitals and the traditional Eastertide Choral Mass.

All Music & Liturgy series events at MTSM will take place in the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great and are free and open to the public.

The Music & Liturgy Series begins on Sunday, October 5 at 6:30 p.m. with Solemn Vespers and the pre-vespers organ recital. The pre-vespers organ recital will begin at 6:30 p.m. and be performed by Dr. Stella O’Neill, the Director of Music at St. Rose of Lima Church in Cincinnati. That will be followed by Vespers at 7 p.m., featuring works by Palestrina and celebrating the 500th anniversary of his birth.

The first of two special organ recitals will take place on Sunday, November 9 at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great and will feature Dr. Kimberly Marshall, the Patricia and Leonard Goldman Endowed Professorship in Organ at Arizona State University. Dr. Marshall’s program, entitled ‘Visions of Heaven and Earth’ will feature works by Bach, Buxtehude, Messiaen, Sandresky and more.

The events for 2025 will wrap up with the traditional Solemn Vespers on the Eve of the Immaculate Conception on Sunday, December 7 at 7:30 p.m. inside the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great. This year’s program will conclude with lessons and carols and will include a performance of Mozart’s ‘Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary’, featuring members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The first Music & Liturgy event of 2026 will be on Sunday, January 11 at 7 p.m. and will be an organ recital performed by MTSM’s own Dr. Christopher Holman. Dr. Holman’s recital, entitled ‘Visions of Eternity’ will feature a chronology of 700 years of organ and keyboard work, concluding with a world premiere by British composer Caitlin Harrison.

Vespers resume on Sunday, February 15 at 6:30 p.m., with a special performance that will be part of the Cincinnati Early Music Festival. The pre-vespers organ recital at 6:30 p.m. will be performed by Matthew Geerlings, the Director of Music at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Cincinnati. The vespers portion of the program will feature baroque music from Mexico, Bolivia and Peru which will feature an accompanying ensemble of specialist musicians playing the lute, baroque guitar, viola da gamba and the organ.

Sunday, March 22 at 6:30 p.m. will be when MTSM’s annual Solemn Passiontide Vespers will take place. The pre-vespers organ program beginning at 6:30 p.m. will be performed by Michael Dailey, Director of Music at Our Lord Christ the King Church in Cincinnati. The vespers program beginning at 7 p.m. will feature late medieval polyphony and plain chant from the Roman, Ambrosian, Dominican, Mozarabic and Sarum Rites.

The final Music & Liturgy event of the academic year will take place on Sunday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. with the annual Eastertide Choral Mass. The pre-vespers organ recital which will begin at 6:30 p.m. will be performed by Dr. John Deaver, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Organ at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Holy Mass will begin at 7 p.m., with the Athenaeum Chorale and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Latin Schola joining together to present Charles-Marie Widor’s Mass for Two Choirs and Two Organs.

For more information on all the events this academic year and the Sacred Music Institute at MTSM, please click here.