Here is what they say about it:
The Blessed John Henry Newman Institute for Liturgical Music is a new venture by the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory in association with the Maryvale Institute under the joint patronage of Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham and James MacMillan, the celebrated Catholic Composer.
The purpose of the Institute is to provide a general formation in liturgical music, so that the Sunday liturgy in parishes may benefit from a doctrinal, liturgical and musical formation. The Institute is to be launched on Saturday, September 17th at the Oratory, Birmingham, to mark the first anniversary of the beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman, and to inaugurate a term of study mornings and evenings particularly designed to promote the music associated with the new translation of the Mass which will come into effect at Advent.
The aim of the first term of the Institute will be to assist clergy and laity to fulfil their complementary roles in the celebration of the Mass in particular. Each Saturday session will comprise:
- a practical instruction on singing the Mass;
- the theological and historical background to Church Music;
- the Celebration of the sung Blessed John Henry Newman Pilgrim Mass.
There will also be evening sessions for the clergy, offering them the opportunity to know how to sing the different parts of the Mass in Latin and in English. Each of these sessions will be repeated to enable more priests and deacons to attend. There will also be a new choir for children at the Sunday 12 noon Mass for Families at the Oratory.
The musical director is Fr. Guy Nicholls, Cong Orat. You may read his full introduction here.
Sounds like a very promising and worthy enterprise.
