Director of Music (Cambridge, MA)

St. Paul’s Parish | Harvard Square is home to St. Paul's Choir School (SPCS), the only boys Catholic choir school in America and also home to the Choir of St. Paul's, the premier Catholic choir of men and boys in America. The liturgical program is unparalleled and features a rich repertoire of music at Sunday liturgies. Embracing the great cathedral school tradition, SPCS unites a classical academic and musical curriculum with the Catholic moral tradition.

The position of Director of Music, with responsibilities divided between the parish and the Choir School, requires an exceptional organist and choral director who can provide outstanding liturgical organ playing (including choral and congregational accompaniment, organ works, and improvisations). The role demands a visionary who is highly skilled at relationship building as well. The music director is the ultimate steward for how the liturgical music and the Choir of Boys and Men come together; what engagements they ought to take on, and what relationships are essential to nurture so that opportunities for developing the vision will take root. A person of integrity, an inspiring leader, and advocate who builds upon the school and parish’s institutional ethos, in order that the community of faith might continue to grow as a center of piety, learning and culture.

Educating boys in grades 3 to 8, the Choir School provides world-class academic and musical education to the boy Choristers who sing in the Choir of St. Paul’s, as well as Pre-Choristers (Choristers in training), and boys who sing in the Choir School Chorus (comprised of boys with changing voices, and those who favor a reduced singing commitment). Music and choral singing form the heart of an SPCS education. In addition to singing at all the major liturgies of Saint Paul’s Church, the Choristers frequently tour around the United States and internationally.  Upon arrival, boys on the ‘Chorister track’ spend a year as Pre-Choristers, which is a period of training before their Investiture brings them fully into the Choir. All students including the ‘Chorus track’ are enrolled in a Music Theory course developed by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). This course is used extensively in choir schools across the world, and teaches all aspects of written music. Students sit each year for the board examination in their grade level. Each boy studies the piano in school with one of a faculty of four professional piano teachers, following a piano course also organized by the ABRSM.

The Music Director is responsible for oversight of all music programming for liturgies and other events at the parish. They recruit, train, and direct the Choir of Boys and Men, oversee all music staff and the Organ Scholar Development Program.