Share:

 Mark Langley (’89)
Mark Langley (’89)Next weekend, clergy, seminarians, scholars, musicians, and Catholic school teachers and administrators from across the United States will come to St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York, for the Gregorian Chant in Pastoral Ministry and Religious Education National Conference — a two-day event dedicated to considering “the place of Gregorian chant and excellent choral music in the life of the Catholic Church in America today.” Among the keynote speakers will be a Thomas Aquinas College graduate, Mark Langley (’89).

The founder and the academic dean of The Lyceum, a classical school in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Langley has over 25 years of experience in Catholic education as a headmaster, dean, teacher, organist, and choral conductor. His keynote address at the conference, “Building a School of Singers: The Schola Cantorum as an Integral Part of the Catholic School,” will examine the role of music in Catholic education. “Instruction of students in sacred music is a task that uniquely belongs to the Catholic school,” reads the talk’s abstract. “It is not only consistent with the intellectual mission of the school but is also an integral part of the formation of the Catholic student, which instruction is ultimately ordered to the fitting worship of God.”

In addition to his work at the Lyceum, Mr. Langley is the director of music at his parish, Sacred Heart of Jesus, in South Euclid, Ohio. He and his wife, Stephanie (Schmitt ’89), have 12 children, including three Thomas Aquinas College graduates and two current students. (Indeed, Mr. Langley has recently written about the experience of having a large, happily “unplanned” family on his personal blog, the Lion & Ox.)

To learn more about the Gregorian Chant conference, see this recent story from the Cardinal Newman Society as well as the conference website.

More about Mark Langley: