November 24, 2024

Sacred musical group, alumni of Thomas Aquinas College, perform in Northfield

REGIONAL
Story and photo by Carolee McGrath

Floriani, a men’s choral group, performed sacred music at Thomas Aquinas College, Friday, Nov. 22. The concert was held inside Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel.

NORTHFIELD – Nearly every seat was taken inside Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel on Friday, Nov. 22, at Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) as students, alumni and the wider community gathered for a performance by Floriani. The sacred musical group is made up of four alumni of TAC who attended college on the California campus: Thomas Quackenbush (’14), Giorgio Navarini (’17), Joseph Daly (’19) and Graham Crawley (’20). The concert was part of TAC’s St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series.

“We formed this group nearly four years ago. It’s an outgrowth of a student led group that began at Thomas Aquinas College in California the better part of a decade ago,” said Joseph Daly. As students, the group sang at Masses, workshops and feast days on and off campus.

“We were all students in different classes. We went our separate ways until after the COVID lockdowns turned everything upside down. We got back in touch and still felt called to do this as a mission,” he said.

Floriani sang traditional Gregorian chant pieces and original compositions. The mission of the men’s choral group is to revive the tradition of Catholic sacred music. The group is a non-profit, and has performed at shrines, parishes, and for retreats in the United States and Italy, as well as on EWTN. In July, Floriani performed before 50, 000 people gathered for the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis during a Holy Hour in which Bishop William D. Byrne was the presider. They also sang for the closing Mass at the Eucharistic Congress.

“I think it’s important for Catholics to recognize that there is a treasury of Catholic sacred music that goes back to the time of Christ,” said Giorgio Crawley, who arranges music for the group. “It’s part of our heritage, part of our patrimony, something we can own and hand to the following generations,” he said.

All of the members had different careers before performing professionally.

“I had no plans to change my career,” said Thomas Quackenbush, who had been dean of students, and a math and science teacher at a Catholic high school in Pasadena, Calif. The husband and father of five had three young children when he felt called to form Floriani.

“It wasn’t the plan to leave that job and pursue this full-time but the Holy Spirit started nudging me and I reached out to my now colleagues,” Quackenbush said.

This was the first time Floriani had performed on the Northfield campus, which opened in August of 2019 on property formerly owned by Northfield Mount Hermon prep school. The California campus opened in 1971.

“Gregorian chant, it’s something I knew existed, I had never heard it in person. I knew it existed as this thing that monks did. I didn’t think it was relevant,” said Graham Crawley.

“Being in a place where you hear this sacred music week in and week out, then of course joining the choir and doing this, it really drew me back into the faith,” he said.

In addition to performing, the group has a Gregorian Chant Academy and released a new album, “Chants of Deliverance: Gregorian Chant for Spiritual Warfare.” More information can be found at floriani.org.

A video version of this story will be on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel” which airs on Saturdays at 7 p.m.  on WWLP-22 NEWS .