Mark Langley is the Dean of Advancement at Trivium School. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College, an M.A. in Philosophy from Holy Apostles College and Seminary, and is currently writing his dissertation for a doctorate in Education from Pontifex University. A lover of sacred music, in addition to founding several schools, Mark has established youth and children's choirs in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Colorado.  He enjoys writing about Catholic liberal education on his blog LionandOx.com. He and his wife Stephanie reside in Lancaster, Massachusetts and are the proud parents of twelve children and the grandparents of fourteen grandchildren.

Dr. Samuel A. Schmitt is Organist & Choirmaster at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Parish and Oratory in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  He 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. At Sts. Cyril and Methodius he directs the parish choir in classical polyphony for Mass and choral Vespers and the men’s chant schola in the full Latin propers each week. In addition, the Children’s Schola sings polyphony and the chant ordinary for Mass once a month. 

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.

Dr. Schmitt also serves as Executive Director of the Carl Schmitt Foundation in Wilton, Connecticut. The Foundation seeks to further the legacy of American painter Carl Schmitt, one of the founders of the Silvermine Guild of Artists. He is the author of Carl Schmitt: The Vision of Beauty (Scepter Publishers) and Silvermine (Arcadia Publishing), and can often be found singing with his wife and six children and friends at Mass or around a bonfire.

Bishop Robert J. McManus was born in Providence on July 5, 1951. The son of Edward W. and Helen F. (King) McManus of Narragansett, he is a graduate of Blessed Sacrament School in Providence and Our Lady of Providence Seminary High School. He studied for the priesthood at Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Warwick, The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (bachelor and master of arts degrees), and the Toronto School of Theology (master of divinity degree). He has also earned licentiate and doctoral degrees in sacred theology from The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

After performing a year’s diaconal service at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in East Greenwich, Bishop McManus was ordained to the priesthood there by Bishop Kenneth A. Angell on May 27, 1978. Following ordination, he served as temporary assistant chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital (1978), associate pastor at St. Matthew Parish in Cranston (1978-81) and associate pastor at St. Anthony Parish in Providence (1981-82). From 1982 to 1984 he was the Catholic chaplain at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) in Warwick while continuing in residence at St. Anthony. He pursued advanced studies in theology in Rome from 1984 to 1987. While still in doctoral studies in Rome, he was named director of the diocesan Office of Ministerial Formation on July 1, 1986, and in July 1987 he returned to the diocese and took up residence at St. Luke Parish in Barrington.

Bishop McManus became diocesan Vicar for Education on November 9, 1987 while continuing as director of the Office of Ministerial Formation and in-residence at St. Luke. On October 4, 1990, he assumed the additional duty as theological consultant and editorial writer for The Providence Visitor newspaper. He was appointed a Prelate of Honor to His Holiness with the title of Monsignor on February 28, 1997. He was named rector of Our Lady of Providence Seminary on June 26, 1998 while continuing his duties as Vicar for Education and Director of Ministerial Formation. At the same time he left St. Luke for residence at the seminary and assumed responsibility for weekend assistance at St. Margaret Parish in Rumford. Bishop McManus was ordained as Titular Bishop of Allegheny and Auxiliary Bishop of Providence on February 22, 1999 and he continued to serve as Secretary for Ministerial Formation and Rector of Our Lady of Providence Seminary for some time.

Pope John Paul II named Bishop McManus as the Fifth Bishop of Worcester and he was installed on May 14, 2004. In 2008, he completed his term as the Chairperson of the Committee on Education for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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. Hughes is a composer, conductor, and organist who is in international demand as a recitalist and instructor of Gregorian chant. 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.

A board member of the Church Music Association of America, Hughes serves on the faculty of its annual Sacred Music Colloquium, teaching chant, composition, and organ improvisation. He is Director of Music for the Roman Forum’s annual two-week Summer Symposium at Lake Garda in Italy, where he directs a choir for daily Masses and Vespers, and coordinates performances with local groups; 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.

Rev. Robert C. Pasley, KCHS, a priest of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, is the President of the Church Music Association of America.  He 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.

Abbot Marc Crilly is the Abbot of St. Benedict Abbey in Still River, Massachusetts. He was raised the third of eleven children in a devout and lively family in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. He began visiting the Abbey while a student at Indian Hills High School. Even though the whole family would visit the Abbey while on vacation, they were disappointed when they brought fewer than five or ten friends along as well. After finishing high school in 1976, he decided to join the community. Professing monastic vows on September 8, 1981, he completed his college education at the Abbey, and then completed his studies for the priesthood at St. John’s Seminary, Brighton, Mass. Fr. Marc was ordained to the priesthood on May 29, 1993.

Over the years, Fr. Marc has been assistant to Fr. Anthony at the barn (when the Abbey had 120 dairy cows). He was also handy in the kitchen but his main work has been Music Director, teacher, and Novice Master.  On May 15, 2021, Fr. Marc was elected as Abbot Marc. He succeeded Abbot Xavier Connelly, who was elected in June 2010 and resigned in March, 2021, because of illness. Abbot Xavier passed away April 8, 2021.  On August 15, 2021, Bishop McManus, Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester officially blessed him in St. John’s Church in Clinton, Massachusetts where some 650 friends of the abbey gathered for the celebration.

Abbot Crilly coat of arms bears a winged lion for St. Mark, whose Gospel calls Christ “Son of Mary,” and a Benedictine cross combined with a Marian cross. A poppy in the cross’ center symbolizes joy.  He said he chose his motto – “Caritas congaudet veritati” (“Charity rejoices in the truth,” from 1 Cor. 13:6) – because “I want to foster joy in the community … a joy that comes from knowing the truth and living the truth.”  Asked how he hopes to do that, he said, “I think that … to have joy is to live the truth, which for a monk would be to live the life well. Sanctity is found in the little things” one does.

Pedro d'Aquino is an organist, pianist, singer, conductor, vocal coach, and composer. His choral and instrumental works have been premiered by One World Symphony and the Choir of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in New York City. He has been involved in the formation of professional chamber ensembles, instruction in the sacred music of various traditions, and the transcription and editing of French Baroque music for performance, recording, and publication. D'Aquino does a great deal of work as well in the New York metro area as a free-lance musician.