Rev. Robert C. Pasley, KCHS, a priest of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, has been a member of the CMAA since his ordination, and has served as its director of liturgy for 17 years.

Introduced to CMAA by Msgr. Richard Schuler, then editor of Sacred Music, he has attended the Sacred Music Colloquium most of the years since the first in 1990.

Father Pasley received a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia, an M.A. in Dogmatic Theology from Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, and an M.A. in Education from Seton Hall University. He was ordained by the Most Reverend George H. Guilfoyle in 1982.

On October 13, 2000 Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio appointed Fr. Pasley Rector of the newly established Parish of Mater Ecclesiae, Berlin, New Jersey (materecclesiae.org), the first diocesan-run Extraordinary Form parish in the United States.

Bishop Paprocki serves as the ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois since his installation in 2010, having previously been an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Chicago from 2003. Ordained a priest in 1978, he earned a law degree from DePaul University (admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1981), co-founded the South Chicago Legal Clinic (now Greater Chicago Legal Clinic) to aid the poor, obtained a canon law doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (1991), and completed an MBA from Notre Dame (2013).

His Chicago roles included vice-chancellor, chancellor (1992–2000), and pastor of a Polish immigrant parish, while he has taught as an adjunct professor at several law schools and currently chairs the USCCB Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance.

Multilingual in Polish, Spanish, Italian, and reading Latin, Bishop Paprocki is an avid runner who has completed around 25 marathons and has authored two books on the topic: Holy Goals for Body and Soul (2013) and Running for a Higher Purpose (2021).

Composer, conductor, and organist Paul French has worked in parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago for over four decades, and since 2001 he has been the Director of Music at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church where he leads a thriving choral program of adult and children’s voices. For over ten years he served as a faculty member of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians Choir Director Institutes, and for 13 seasons was the music director of the William Ferris Chorale, a professional choral ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary a cappella repertoire.

In addition, Paul is the President of the Board of Directors of the American Federation Pueri Cantores, (the student-choral organization of the Roman Catholic Church with Federations in nearly 35 countries worldwide), and is a member of their conducting roster, leading annual youth choral festivals in dioceses around the United States. Mr. French was invited to create Fanfares and Alleluias for the papal visit of Pope Francis to the U. S. in 2015.

Another of his works, Concertato on Grosser Gott, was performed for the papal visits of both Pope Francis (2015) and Pope Benedict XVI (2008). His music is available from a wide number of publishing houses. In July 2024 he was awarded the prestigious National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) Pastoral Music of the Year award.

Susan Treacy, Ph.D., is Professor of Music Emerita at Ave Maria University, from which she retired in July of 2019. Prior to AMU, she taught at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Luther College, and Emory University, where she was a Mellon Faculty Fellow in the Humanities.

Dr. Treacy holds the Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of North Texas; her B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees are from Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music.

At Ave Maria University Dr. Treacy taught music history, art song literature, special topics courses, sacred music courses, and Gregorian chant; in addition, she directed the Women’s Schola Gregoriana and the Men’s Schola Gregoriana.

David Hughes is Director of Music at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Littleton, Colorado, where he oversees an active program of musical formation for students and adults, in the context of the traditional Latin Mass and the Divine Office. He is also director of Gaudium Verum, a professional liturgical choir in Denver. He has developed choral programs at several notable parishes in Connecticut, including St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk and most recently St. Patrick Oratory in Waterbury. He is the founder of Viri Galilæi, an ensemble of men from the tristate New York area who have gathered every week for the past ten years to sing Vespers and medieval polyphony from facsimiles of original manuscripts.

Hughes is Director of Music for the Roman Forum’s annual two-week Summer Symposium at Lake Garda in Italy; he is also a board Member of the Roman Forum. He was named Chant Instructor for St. Benedict’s Abbey in Still River, Massachusetts, which he visits every few months for musical consultation with the monks. He travels frequently to give workshops, clinics, and recitals in North America, South America, and Europe.

Hughes has written extensively for choir and organ. Recent compositions include the Misa en honor de Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso for congregation and organ, which was a commission from the CMAA; Cor Jesu amantissimum for double choir; and Iste confessor in honorem Sancti Ignatii. His suite for organ, Nuestra Señora de Apocalipsis, received its premiere in Guayaquil, Ecuador in August 2019. Film scoring credits include Navis Pictures’ St. Bernadette of Lourdes and several documentaries. With librettist Richard Munkelt, Hughes is the composer of the opera Gracchus; the fully staged world premiere was in Stamford, Connecticut in August 2023.

Hughes’s composition teachers have included Ruth Schonthal and John Halle, and he has studied organ with Paul Jacobs, Daniel Sullivan, and Scott Turkington. He is a graduate of Yale College.

Christopher Berry is Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music (CISM) and Organist and Director of Sacred Music at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park, CA. He is also Director of CISM’s newly-founded Chorister Program for young singers in grades 3+.

A distinguished musician, Christopher Berry brings a wealth of experience in organ performance, choral conducting, and Gregorian chant to his new roles. With a career molded by studies under renowned mentors such as Jesse Eschbach, James Higdon, Marie-Claire Alain, Andrew Megill, and Simon Carrington, Berry has earned international recognition, including a Premier Prix from the conservatory of Rueil-Malmaison in Paris. His deep knowledge of early music and chant, born out of work at the Paris Conservatory, has profoundly influenced his approach to sacred music.

Berry’s extensive conducting experience includes leading choirs at iconic venues such as St. Peter’s Basilica, Canterbury Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey. As Director of Music at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, he made a commercial recording and conducted an historic concert in the Sistine Chapel. After redefining a model music program for the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee, Berry moved to St. Stanislaus Oratory, where the music program for the parish flourished with new ensembles and a chorister program grounded in traditional principles of chant and polyphony. While developing choirs at St. Stanislaus and at various summer conferences, he taught as Professor of Organ at Carthage College and University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

At the Church of the Nativity, Berry oversees the sacred music program, enriching liturgical celebrations with his expertise in organ performance and choral direction. As director of CISM’s Chorister Program, he guides young singers in developing their musical and spiritual formation, fostering a deep appreciation for the Church’s sacred music tradition.

Aidan Hill is from Kingman, Kansas and graduated from the University of Kansas in 2023, where he earned his Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance. His primary instructor was Dr. James Higdon, though he also studied routinely with Olivier Latry, titular organist of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, during his bi-annual residencies at KU. Aidan has been a prizewinner in multiple international organ competitions in the U.S.A, Russia, and France, the most recent being the Prix de la ville d’Angers at the Grand Prix Jean Louis Florentz in 2025. Aidan was the Principal Organist and Director of the Schola at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at KU, before recently moving back home to the Wichita Diocese, where he currently teaches K-8 music at St. Joseph Catholic School (Ost, KS). During the school day, he also teaches a studio of fifteen 4th-8th grade organ students who assist in the playing of the daily all-school Masses. He is also the Director of Music at his childhood parish of St. Patrick in Kingman, directing both the parish choir and the school choir. Aidan and his wife, Megan, and children live in Wichita, Kansas. 

Dr. Samuel A. Schmitt has dedicated the better part of the past thirty years to making music for the church as an organist, conductor, composer, teacher, and choral singer. He currently serves as Organist & Choirmaster at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Parish and Oratory in Bridgeport, Connecticut where he directs three choirs offering chant and classical polyphony for Mass and choral Vespers throughout the year.

Schmitt studied the Solesmes method of chant under Dr. Theodore Marier while earning a master’s in liturgical music­ with a concentration in organ performance at the Catholic University of America. He earned a doctorate in musicology at CUA for his research on the music and liturgical practice of underground Catholics in Elizabethan England.

While in Washington Dr. Schmitt served as assistant organist at both the Cathedral of St. Matthew and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Most recently he was Director of Sacred Music and Organist at the Cathedral Parish in Bridgeport. Schmitt’s chant-based choral faux-bourdon settings of the psalms in English and Spanish are sung by choirs across the country.  

He teaches music history, theory, and appreciation at Trivium School in Lancaster, Massachusetts, where his 100-voice chorus of high schoolers joyfully sing polyphony, chant, and the occasional madrigal.

Lucas Tappan is the founder and president of the Catholic Academy of Sacred Music, founder and director of the Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum and the Director of Liturgy and Music for Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Topeka, Kansas. Through the apostolate of the Academy he and his team work with around 200 students throughout the week during the school year, teaching sight-singing, ear-training, music theory and all the many wonderful aspects of Sacred Music in the Roman Catholic tradition.

He graduated from Benedictine in 2004 with degrees in Music and Theology. He earned his Master of Music in Church Music (organ performance) in 2009 and his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Church Music (choral conducting) from the University of Kansas.

In 2012, he was privileged to spend six weeks observing the training of choristers at the Madeleine Choir School at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, Utah — an experience that has greatly shaped the way he trains choristers.

In January of 2016 the MPHM Schola Cantorum traveled to Rome to sing at St. Peter’s Basilica — joing the Sistine Chapel Choir — alongside several other children’s choirs from the Americas and Europe for the first Children’s Festival for Epiphany, sponsored by the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra.

Dr. Tappan speaks and teaches nationally on the topic of children’s choirs and church music.

Charles Weaver is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, where he teaches courses in performance practice, music history, historical music theory, and improvisation. He has performed widely as an accompanist on lute and theorbo, with a particular interest in seventeenth-century opera. Of his conducting for New York’s Dell’Arte Opera, The Observer remarked, “It was amazing to hear what warm and varied sounds he coaxed from the ensemble.”

As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony. He also works with the New York Continuo Collective, an ensemble that mounts workshop productions of 17th-century vocal music. 

Since 2019 he has served as organist and director of music at St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut. He joined the St. Mary’s Schola in 2012, under the direction of David Hughes, and served from 2016 to 2019 as associate director of music. Before coming to St. Mary’s, he was director the Holy Innocents’ Schola in New York City and previously sang at St. Agnes, also in New York, where he had the life-altering experience, in 2006, of encountering plainchant as a living tradition.

He holds a Ph.D. in music theory from the City University of New York. His research interests include the history of Gregorian Chant in performance (especially the question of rhythm) and the history of the theory of harmony. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and four children.

Fr. Michael Connolly, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, was ordained in St. Patrick’s Cathedral by Timothy Cardinal Dolan on May 26th, 2018.

Fr. Connolly studied music and philosophy at Fordham University before attending St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, where his mind and heart were opened to the rich treasury of Catholic sacred music by his professor and Schola Cantorum director, Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka.

Fr. Connolly has participated in several CMAA panel discussions and video-conference presentations in English and Spanish including a Spanish-language presentation on the Hierarchy of the Sung Liturgy. Fr. Connolly also had the honor of celebrating a Sung Mass in Spanish in Honor of Our Lady for the 2019 CMAA Colloquium in Philadelphia.

Fr. Connolly is now the Pastor of the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Chaplain at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Fabian Qamar has served the ascending program at St. Stanislaus in diverse capacities since 2010. Now director, he oversees the robust liturgical music schedule and its array of ensembles, joined frequently by Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra players and early music specialists.

A seasoned singer, recent highlights have included Mozart’s Krönungsmesse and Spatzenmesse (tenor soloist, spring 2025), Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël (tenor soloist, winter 2025), a Carnegie Hall performance of Rutter’s Requiem conducted by the composer (tenor, spring 2025), and the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit at St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, CA (choir-in-residence tenor, summer 2025).

Fabian is sought after as a vocal instructor. He taught voice at Lakeland University and held staff conducting positions with the Sheboygan Symphony and Chorus. He is also a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, arranger, and composer.

Fabian holds an M.M. from UW-Madison (voice) and a B.A. from Lakeland (voice, viola).