What We Are About
Joining the Gregorian Chant Project Choir
“Open House Rehearsals” for new and prospective singers
Schola / Study Group
Training and Professional Development
Led by Lawrence Harris
Broadening Horizons
We appreciate your help in publicizing these new choirs!
For More Information
About Medieval Chant
“Come Sing Chant!” Public Events — Join our audience!
CONFERENCE DAY 2026 for Singers and Conductors
WHAT WE ARE ABOUT
- Teaching and singing a wide repertoire of Gregorian chant at a high level of interpretation and insight
- Fostering in our singers a deep love of this music and knowledge of its history and the liturgical tradition in which it arose
- Creating a vibrant sense of community, and cultivating in all our singers agility, responsiveness, sensitivity, confidence, and passion
- Sharing this music with a wide public by singing in recordings, educational resources, and events such as concerts and workshops — and liturgical rites, which are the first home of these sacred chants
- Committing to excellence
JOINING the GREGORIAN CHANT PROJECT CHOIR
We are gradually developing a monastic-style choir, growing and aiming for a size that lets the chant “ring” — like the voices of monks or nuns in a monastery — even during very gentle passages.
To join the Gregorian Chant Project Choir, here’s what you need:
- A good musical ear and the ability to sing in tune,
- Choir-singing experience* (but not necessarily experience with chant)…
- …or proficiency in a musical instrument,
- The ability to focus deeply and follow instructions.
- And, of course, you must participate consistently.
*If you don’t have choir-singing or instrumental experience, please speak with the Director. It may be possible to join the Gregorian Chant Project Choir rehearsals on an ongoing basis as a visitor and participate to the extent to which you are capable (this might involve mainly listening at first). We are very interested in helping people gain the skills needed to sing this special music.
Or, you might like to attend our occasional “Come Sing Chant!” events where members of the public gather to hear the Gregorian Chant Project Choir and learn some chants to join in singing.
Choir singers have responsibilities! We value conscientiousness and punctuality. Do some homework each week and keep your music binder in order. Tell the Director in advance about absences and irregular arrivals or departures so we know what to plan for. Reply “got it!” to the weekly e-newsletter so we know you read it. Focus on musical excellence. Please be positive and helpful, leave problems and politics outside, and remember we’re here to fall in love with Gregorian chant so no soliciting, advertising, or recruiting for other activities, events, or products. Get to know your fellow singers. Work as a team. Ask yourself, “How can I help to make this a huge success?!!” (The answer lies in learning the music inside out!) In respecting this framework, the benefits of the Gregorian Chant Project can be yours — which include entering a world of musical growth and inspiration in bringing these deeply spiritual chants to life.
Everyone needs the Liber cantualis book (published by the Abbey of St-Pierre de Solesmes) for basic repertoire, plus booklets specially prepared for our rehearsals. Singers are responsible for the costs of these materials and can obtain them at a rehearsal. You must acquire them all by the third rehearsal you attend.
Is there a membership fee? No, but it is a future possibility to help with the fundraising gap. We are self-funded and rely on voluntary donations from our choir singers and friends.
Must I have a religious background? We have a wide diversity of singers and welcome everyone who has a respect for the religious traditions in which these chants came into being. Reverence is important — with respect to the chants and the liturgy and in how we conduct ourselves when we gather to sing in sacred spaces.
Rehearsals are held Sunday afternoons, 2:30-5:00 p.m. in the Art Gallery space at St. John’s in the Village, Manhattan. Enter through the gate to the right of the main church door on West 11th St. near Waverly Place, slightly west of 7th Ave. Near subways and PATH trains at 14th St. The Art Gallery space is across the inner courtyard.
OPEN HOUSE REHEARSALS for NEW and PROSPECTIVE SINGERS
Interested in joining? You are welcome to visit and check us out! Send an email beforehand and look over the information above. Please arrive early to get set up. We’ll need your contact info when you arrive. Keep an open mind and join in singing to the extent you feel comfortable. Afterwards, have a chat with the Director about your visit.
We hope you will discover a lasting home for your voice in the New York Gregorian Chant Project!
Please email us in advance to sign up to visit a rehearsal or find out about our public events:
info@ChantProject.org or click here to fill out our contact form.
SCHOLA / STUDY GROUP
For those with substantial training in music (such as piano, instrumental, or voice lessons, or college-level music studies) and good sight-singing and vocal skills, we have a Schola/Study Group — a smaller, auditioned ensemble of singers who have the responsibility of performing the most virtuosic chants and studying their musical, liturgical, and historical backgrounds.
Schola singers also lead certain segments of our Gregorian Chant Project Choir rehearsals. Gaining this leadership experience can keep you challenged and motivated. Combined with intensive training in medieval chant, being part of the Schola offers a valuable type of professional development.
Our Schola/Study Group is working from scores such as the Graduale triplex and the Graduale novum that include the staffless neumatic notations from the 9th and 10th centuries, and other documents prepared for our sessions. Singers are responsible for the costs of their materials and can obtain them at a rehearsal. Rehearsals are Monday evenings, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM.
As well as the Monday evening sessions, Schola singers attend the Sunday rehearsals on an ongoing basis, not only to lead parts of those rehearsals but also to gain essential experience singing in the “natural habitat” of medieval chant — which is very different from the musical styles of other types of choral singing.
If you are interested in joining the Schola, please email us in advance and attend several Sunday rehearsals of our main Gregorian Chant Project Choir to become accustomed to how we approach the chant repertoire and to become familiar with the notation and stylistic elements needed to interpret this repertoire with a high level of skill. Afterwards, chat with the Director about how we bring new singers into the Schola.
info@ChantProject.org or click here to fill out our contact form.
TRAINING and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
We will teach you how to read the 12th-century “square” music notation, and how to pronounce the Latin texts — both are easier than you might expect! We'll also teach you the correct accentuation and rhythm of sung Latin (this is more difficult!), and work with the first-millennium staff-less neumes which are the earliest extensive musical notation of Western civilization.
We will mentor you in the elements of style, and go over exercises to sharpen your choral skills, such as sight-reading, ear training, and voice building. Movement is a vital component of our rehearsals — getting your full body and your whole being to feel the flow of the music and the undulating, irregular rhythm of the chants, in sync with all your fellow singers.
By strengthening the musicianship of all our singers, the choir can operate at a level necessary to do justice to this sublime music. Gregorian chant — sacred text floating on melody — requires a fluidity and lyricism quite unlike other types of choral music. There is more to it than singing smoothly with a nice voice! First and foremost is an intelligible rendering of the Latin text (not just singing a string of beautiful syllables!), then bringing the melodic and textual interplay to life with an informed sense of style and grace.
Through all of this we make a determined effort to perfect the Latin “tonic accents” (tonic means tone) which animate the language but are generally wrongly placed or overlooked in most recordings and choral performances.
LED by LAWRENCE HARRIS
Lawrence Harris has been a visiting professor of Gregorian chant at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. He has led chant seminars with many choirs and organizations including the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians. He is currently Director of the New York Gregorian Chant Project in Manhattan and is on the faculty of Les sessions du chant grégorien of the Abbey of St-Pierre de Solesmes, France.
These opportunities to sing Gregorian chant and to receive a high level of instruction are open to students, singers from church and community choirs, and members of the public — all of whom are welcome to join us in studying and singing this ancient, contemplative, and deeply spiritual musical heritage, widely considered to be the foundational music of Western culture and civilization.
BROADENING HORIZONS
Eventually, we hope to establish a new mixed-voice choir that will sing Gregorian chant and renaissance polyphony and modern compositions in four or more parts that are related to the Gregorian chants we are working on.
While most choirs approach music from previous eras by looking back with the mind of today’s culture, or sometimes by researching early performance practices, the New York Gregorian Chant Project can offer the opportunity to sing renaissance polyphony from a medieval context looking forward, which is in perfect alignment with the way the music actually developed. The great renaissance composers were versed in the lessons of Latin prosody, and through the Liturgy the aesthetics of Gregorian chant contributed to the musical culture in which they lived.
Because a deep understanding of Gregorian chant is enriched by interaction with other disciplines, we are gradually establishing links with scholars and students of liturgy, theology, and biblical studies, musicology, history and architecture, as well as performers in theatre and dance, photo- and videographers, and artists in other spheres including painting, stained glass, and calligraphy — and with other choirs and musical ensembles. We are always happy to make the acquaintance of people from all backgrounds who are interested in medieval chant!
We are proud of our diverse community of singers of all ages and all walks of life. And we are enriched by singers from many liturgical and religious traditions. All this is evidence of how these ancient, spiritual chants touch people deeply, even in our busy modern day.
We have a place for everyone — we invite you to join us!
Please add your name to our mailing list. Perhaps even consider becoming a donor!
info@ChantProject.org or click here to fill out our contact form.
WE APPRECIATE YOUR HELP IN PUBLICIZING THESE NEW CHOIRS!
Please tell your musical friends and colleagues about the New York Gregorian Chant Project and invite them to visit a rehearsal or attend one of our public events.
We especially encourage you to spread the word on social media, and to invite young people and students for whom this might be a wonderful new musical horizon.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Lawrence Harris is happy to answer your questions. You can reach him by email at info@ChantProject.org
or click here to fill out our contact form.
(If you prefer a phone conversation, please send us your phone number.)
ABOUT MEDIEVAL CHANT
If you are curious about the origins of medieval chant, its roots go back to the earliest centuries of Christianity. But the most important era of development was the 7th through 9th centuries, especially in the Frankish empire of Charlemagne where the core repertoire and most masterful compositions of Gregorian chant emerged.
By the time of the construction of the great Gothic cathedrals of the 12th century and onwards, the high art of the Carolingian cantors and their Gregorian chant were in decline. To a large extent, chant was replaced by various types of part-singing down through the centuries — though new chants continued to be composed, and monasteries in particular held on to some traditions of chanting daily prayers.
In the eighteen hundreds there was great interest in restoring the medieval chant melodies, which had been corrupted by simplifications and other influences through the centuries. Much of the research for this renewal took place at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, in France.
There was a wide resurgence of singing Gregorian chant in the first half of the twentieth century. And in the 1960s, a Solesmes monk-musicologist and his students began to publish research that “decoded” the meaning of a multitude of medieval musical signs (called “neumes”). This has given modern singers much more insight into the expressive nuances of Gregorian chant interpretation. Research and debate about performance practices continue to this day.
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