Dear Friends of the Church Music Association of America and The New Liturgical Movement,
We know that, along with those of us on staff and on the board of directors, you have been mourning the recent death of our beloved president, William P. Mahrt. Thank you all for your messages of condolence and remembrances that have been shared.
In striving to move forward in the leadership of the organization Dr. Mahrt loved so much, the Board of Directors has elected Rev. Robert Pasley as our new President of the Board of Directors to lead the organization as we move forward.
Fr. Pasley has acted as an officer of the board for many years. After first becoming introduced to the beauty of sacred music in the liturgy by Fr. Richard Schuler, of St. Agnes Parish (St. Paul, Minnesota), editor of Sacred Music, he became a loyal member and was identified early on as a leader. As Vice President many years ago, when Fr. Robert Skeris was the Association’s President, he was there, signing the documents for the CMAA’s incorporation in Virginia. He attended the very first Sacred Music Colloquium and has attended nearly all of them in the years since. Eighteen years ago, when Dr. William Mahrt was elected as CMAA board President and Dr. Horst Buchholz as Vice President, Fr. Pasley took the position of Chaplain. He has served faithfully as a spiritual guide and officer ever since.
After eighteen years of service to the Church Music Association of America, Dr. Horst Buchholz has decided to retire from his position as Vice President. The entire board of directors is so grateful for his generous gift of his time, valuable guidance and experience during these many years.
Dr. Donelson-Nowicka has been a “member-at-large” of the Board of Directors since 2014. Since 2012, she has served as managing editor of the Sacred Music journal, working closely with editor William Mahrt to faithfully publish the journal in the years since. She has also worked on all our recent publications and new projects (such as The Parish Book of Motets and the Parish Book of Chant recording project, as well as our upcoming new publication, a collection of three-part motets). She has long been a member of the faculty at our events and has been a member of the event planning committee for several years. Known for her ability to accomplish more in less time than seems humanly possible, the board is very appreciative for her willingness to accept these new roles.
We ask for your prayers and support of our new officers as they take on the leadership of the organization in this new year.
He was ordained by the Most Reverend George H. Guilfoyle in 1982. Father Pasley was stationed as a parish priest in Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Berlin, NJ, 1982-84, Our Lady Star of the Sea, Cape May, NJ, 1984-87, Our Lady Queen of Apostles, Pennsville, NJ, 1987-90, and Sacred Heart, Mount Ephraim, NJ, 1990-92. In 1992, he became a resident at St. John, Collingswood, NJ where he lived for the next eight years.
In 1992 he was assigned to Paul VI High School, Haddon Township, NJ and taught all levels of Religion and reestablished a course in Latin. In 1996, he was transferred to Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, NJ, where he taught Religion and French I.
In 1998 he was appointed Vice Principal of Academics and served in this post for two years. During his time at Camden Catholic, Father received an MA in Education from Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ.
On October 13, 2000, he was appointed Rector, by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, of the newly established Tridentine Parish of Mater Ecclesiae, Berlin, NJ. Mater Ecclesiae is the first diocesan-run Tridentine parish in the United States.
Father Pasley, along with Dr. Timothy McDonnell, established the annual Mass of Thanksgiving on the feast of the Assumption. This Mass has featured some of the greatest orchestral Masses ever composed for the sacred liturgy, such as the Lord Nelson Mass of F. J. Haydn, the Missa Septem Dolorum of Carl H. Biber, The Mass in Bb Major of Franz Schubert and the Missa Brevis in C of W. A. Mozart. For the past several years, it has been held at the magnificent Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
In the Diocese of Camden, Father Pasley was a member of the Presbyteral Council. He served as a county Pro-Life Chaplain, and as Chaplain to the Camden County Presidium of the Legion of Mary. He also served as a member of the Diocesan Marian Commission, the Diocesan Liturgical Commission and an assistant vocations director for recruitment.
In September of 2004, Father was installed as a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, NY, by His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan. In September of 2010, Father was raised to the rank of Knight Commander by His Excellency, now Cardinal, Timothy Dolan.
She serves on the board of the CMAA, is the managing editor of the its journal Sacred Music, and is a regular member of the faculty for its annual Sacred Music Colloquium. As academic liaison of the CMAA, she has organized and presented papers at several academic conferences on Charles Tournemire, the work of Msgr. Richard Schuler, the role of Gregorian chant in pastoral ministry and religious education, and the work of William Mahrt. She was a co-organizer of the Sacra Liturgia conferences in New York (2015) and San Francisco (2022), and has presented papers at the Sacra Liturgia conferences in New York, London, Milan, and San Francisco. The sometime president, she is currently a board member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. Donelson-Nowicka serves as a Consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship.
An innovative and pioneering educator, Donelson-Nowicka has developed an extensive program of musical formation for the seminarians at St. Patrick’s Seminary, teaching required courses in each stage of seminary formation, as well as providing musical formation in singing the Mass through voice lessons and formation sessions. Having founded the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music at St. Patrick’s Seminary in 2022, Donelson-Nowicka serves on the faculty, teaching summer graduate-level courses. She runs CISM’s Public Lecture and Concert Series, which draws hundreds to each event with prominent presenters and recitalists, and each semester of the regular academic year she presents workshops open to the public on helpful topics in sacred music, as well as continuing education seminars for current graduate students in the CISM.
Donelson-Nowicka received her DMA in piano performance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied piano with Paul Barnes, Mark Clinton, and Ann Chang in addition to her organ studies with Quentin Faulkner. She received her undergraduate degree in vocal music education at North Dakota State University, where she studied piano with Dr. Robert Groves and conducting with Dr. JoAnn Miller. Before coming to St. Patrick’s, Dr. Donelson-Nowicka served on the faculty at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, where she taught music theory, music history, piano, and directed the university chorale, and at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie) in New York, where she developed an extensive musical formation program for seminarians and lay students.
Having presented hundreds of workshops, presentations, and classes on sacred music—especially Gregorian chant—for dioceses, parishes, and monasteries across the United States and Europe, Donelson-Nowicka’s experience is grounded in her daily work as the Director of Sacred Music and organist at St. Patrick’s Seminary, and as the director of a professional schola cantorum and organist at Mater Dolorosa Catholic church in South San Francisco. Having studied Gregorian chant at the Catholic University of America and the Abbey of St. Peter in Solesmes, for six years Donelson-Nowicka was a co-organizer of the Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian Chant Conference, and she has served as a clinician for numerous local sacred music workshops which have become annual events, including Musica Sacra Maine, Colorado Sacred Music Conference, Southeastern Sacred Music, and the CMAA’s Fall Sacred Music Workshop.
As a choral conductor, Donelson-Nowicka has directed seminary, collegiate, professional, semi-professional, amateur, monastic, and children’s choirs. At St. Patrick’s Seminary, she has established a schola cantorum and directs them in weekly rehearsals, preparing them for solemn Masses and Vespers, focusing on a repertory of Gregorian and Spanish- and English-language chant, alongside sacred polyphony and classical hymnody. She previously directed the Schola Cantorum of St. Joseph’s Seminary, which developed an extensive repertoire for the liturgy, while also singing a yearly concert broadcast on Sirius XM, recording a full-length album of music dedicated to St. Joseph, and performing choral masterworks on a concert tour of northern France (2017). She also founded and directed the Metropolitan Catholic Chorale which continues its mission in the New York City area, and has taught extensively for religious orders, including the Benedictine monks of San Benedetto in Monte (Norcia, Italy), the contemplative sisters at the Monastery of St. Edith Stein in Borough Park, Brooklyn (Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará [SSVM]), and the Benedictine nuns of Priorij Nazareth, at Tegelen in the Netherlands. She has served as a choral conducting coach for graduate organ students in Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music and has taught chant to children for many years using the Ward Method (Ave Maria Oratory, Ave Maria, FL; Colm Cille Club, Pelham, NY; Immaculate Conception Children’s Schola Cantorum, Sleepy Hollow, NY), also previously serving on the faculty at Cardinal Kung Academy in Stamford, Connecticut. Dr. Donelson-Nowicka was recently appointed as the Director of the Archbishop’s Schola, a professional ensemble which sings for liturgies celebrated by His Excellency, Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco.
Dr. Donelson-Nowicka hosts a podcast entitled “Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast,” now entering its seventh season.
