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The new music director and organist for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany plans to grow the parish's choir, boost the music program's public appeal and connect people to older forms of music to "reclaim the Church's musical traditions."

Brian Gurley, a native of Pittsburgh, came to the cathedral in June. "It's impressive to see what history has been here," he said, noting that his predecessors "were doing some serious music. It's neat to see."

Having started work on his doctorate in musical arts and choral conducting in Wisconsin and served at a parish there, Mr. Gurley has spent this summer planning liturgical music, scheduling choir rehearsals and getting acquainted with the Albany Diocese.

More to come
Now, he envisions adding another two dozen people to the cathedral's 12-person choir. He aims to recruit youth for an intergenerational ensemble "so, ideally, the students grow up singing in the choir" and "never graduate."

Mr. Gurley would also like to find a student-organist so he'd be available to conduct the choir more often. He hopes to develop an organist training program for parishes throughout the Diocese and be a resource for parish musicians.

The music director keeps tabs on the music scene in other parts of the country, noting that the cathedral in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Utah, runs a "choir school" for elementary-age students.

"I don't think people realize that things like that are even possible in their own churches," he said. "But it is, with the right amount of energy and the right way to engage the community, and exposure to success stories."

Mr. Gurley's job responsibilities do not officially involve helping other parishes - he's expected to play at weekend and feast day Masses at the cathedral, plan music for weddings and funerals, direct the choir and organize concert series - but he's interested in the greater good.

That includes creating musical programming that can attract the thousands of state employees who, Mr. Gurley says, pass the cathedral every day, but maintain no connection to it.

"It's part of the outreach for the cathedral not just to cater to its own parishioners, but to be a welcoming and active ministry," he said. "We need to serve everyone in the Diocese, whether they're going to church or not."

Bring it back
The director's other professional goal is to "reclaim the balance" between modern lay participation in sacred music and the Church's historical choral repertoires, which he said have been "largely neglected, if not sadly abandoned."

He lamented that most Catholics are more likely to hear Renaissance-era pieces or Gregorian chant at concerts than in churches - but that could change. Even listening is a kind of participation, he said: "That's the beauty of liturgy, that it engages all of our senses."

Mr. Gurley is an admirer of the Tridentine Mass and believes the different forms of the liturgy can learn from each other, just as modern and traditional musical styles can: "Just because it's old doesn't necessarily mean it's bad or good;" for instance, "I wonder how many people who shun Gregorian chant have ever heard it done well."

Mr. Gurley, who's 29, said many Catholics of his generation are fascinated with traditional church music and liturgical forms because "they just haven't been taught it."

Started young
For his own part, he'd been taking piano lessons for years when he discovered his parish's pipe organ as an altar boy in high school: "It's just such an impressive instrument, awe-inspiring in its scope and capabilities."

Mr. Gurley began organ lessons and earned a bachelor's degree in organ performance from Grove City College in Pennsylvania, then a master's degree of sacred music from the University of Notre Dame and a master's in choral conducting from the University of Wisconsin. He's currently writing his doctoral dissertation on the polychoral motets of Tomas Luis de Victoria, a 16th-century Spanish composer.

Paraphrasing Pope Benedict XVI in his "Spirit of the Liturgy" book, Mr. Gurley said the Holy Spirit works through music.

"We're all musical in some way," he added. "There's always some music that speaks to each person. Music is the necessary expression for so many emotions."

It makes sense, he added, that music is crucial to our faith, which "is so much a part of our being, how we understand ourselves and how we understand the world."[[In-content Ad]]

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