The Prince and Father of Music: Palestrina at 500

Vocal ensemble Schola Antiqua serves as the Lumen Christi Institute’s Artists-in-Residence. Lumen Christi supports Schola Antiqua in providing unparalleled offerings related to the foundations of Catholic liturgy and music. Michael Alan Anderson, the Artistic Director of Schola Antiqua and a graduate of the University of Chicago, works closely with the Institute to deliver concerts and workshops on the Church’s great treasury of sacred music.

About Schola Antiqua

Schola Antiqua is a professional vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of music composed before the year 1600. Executing pre-modern repertory with “sensitivity and style” (Early Music America), Schola Antiqua takes pride in providing the highest standards of research, performance, and education involving many underserved repertories in the Western musical canon. Founded in 2000 under the artistic leadership of University of Notre Dame Professor Calvin M. Bower, the group has received performance invitations from the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Chicago’s Newberry Library, the Chicago Cultural Center, the University of Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, the American Guild of Organists, and other institutions across the Midwest.

About the Artistic Director

Michael Alan Anderson was named Artistic Director of Schola Antiqua in 2008, following the retirement of its founding Artistic Director, Calvin M. Bower. Holding a PhD in the History and Theory of Music from the University of Chicago, Anderson is a founding member of the ensemble and currently serves on the musicology faculty of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, specializing in the sacred music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He has received numerous awards, including the Alvin H. Johnson American Musicological Society 50 Dissertation-Year Fellowship, the Whiting Foundation Fellowship (University of Chicago), and the Grace Frank Grant (Medieval Academy of America).