The music ministry of Saint Cecilia Cathedral has been
conceived as a "Schola Cantorum" or a "school of singing". Since
it was incorporated in January of 2000, the Saint Cecilia Schola
Cantorum has forged new relationships among parishes of the
Archdiocese of Omaha and its Mother Church, Saint Cecilia
Cathedral, Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart, the
University of Nebraska and various civic arts organizations.

The ministry of music is not a ministry of musicians to the Church,
but a ministry of the Church to the world.

    On the parochial level, the Schola Cantorum currently engages
over 100 cathedral parishioners in an average of 3-4 hours per
week of active ministry and preparation for the liturgy of the
Church, the "source and summit" of the Christian life. Immersion
in sung liturgical prayer supports the faith formation of adults and
children as well as supporting the liturgical prayer and
sacramental life of the greater Church.

    On the diocesan level, the Schola Cantorum is the heart of the
Saint Cecilia Schola Cantorum Association, a new diocesan
association of pastoral musicians serving every parish in the
Archdiocese of Omaha. This Association recently completed a
diocesan-wide survey of parish music ministries to help identify
needs and priorities in music ministry formation for coming years.

Since its beginning, the Church has prayed "in choir," sharing
among its members the duty and delight of offering ceaseless
prayer to God.

    The Schola Cantorum engages over 50 musicians from
throughout the Archdiocese to lead the musical worship of the
local Church whenever it gathers to pray with its bishop. The staff
of the Schola Cantorum regularly consults with parish pastors and
musicians about the development of parish music ministries. In
addition to the regular round of cathedral and archdiocesan
liturgies, the Schola Cantorum provided musical leadership for
the 2002 Archdiocesan Vocation Fair, the 2002 Region II
Convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, the
2003 Archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress, and will do the same
for the 2004 Archdiocesan Synod.

The Choir is the joyful attendant of the People of God among its
pilgrim way, and a festive sign of its heavenly home.

    The Saint Cecilia Schola Cantorum is working closely with
Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart to develop an
exemplary model of campus music ministry for Catholic high
schools, as well as an academic music program appropriate to a
college preparatory curriculum. During the past three years, the
Duchesne Academy Choir has earned a superior rating at the
annual District Music Festival.

    Locally, the Schola Cantorum has enjoyed mutually fruitful
relationships with academic and civic arts institutions.
Collaborations with UNO and UN-L have yielded a preschool
music program at Duchesne and an Organ Scholar program at
the Cathedral. Children from the choir school have performed in
professional symphony and opera productions, including Puccini's
Toxca, Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Bizet's Carmen,
Orff's Carmina Burana, Leoncavallo's Paggliacci, Verdi's Falstaff,
and Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

    Finally, the Schola Cantorum has been instrumental in providing
a conceptual framework for advancing the cause of choir schools
on a national and international level. With the support of the
Liturgical Institute of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Schola
Cantorum director Kevin Vogt convened representatives of
Roman Catholic Choir School sin the United States and Canada
in May of 2002 to share information and ideas and to
brainstorm about forming the next generation of leaders of
leaders in Catholic liturgical music. This meeting culminated in
the formation of the North American Schola Cantorum Network,
a continental association of Roman Catholic Choir Schools and
programs of similar intensity, like the Saint Cecilia Schola
Cantorum. This network hopes to promote among the bishops of
the United States and Canada the institutionalization of the choir
school concept in every diocese toward the promotion of priestly
and religious vocations, the formation of the next generation of
lay leaders in liturgy and music, and the provision of an
exemplary model of liturgical catechesis for Catholic schools.

...an invitation to boldly invest in the legacy for the next
generation of believers: a musically literate Church, steeped in
the creative arts, imaginative enough to see and build the
Kingdom of God on earth, and fit for the choir of heaven,
where we will join our patroness, Cecilia, and all the saints in
light.