Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 BC Sacred Music Symposium has been cancelled. Please consider joining us for the 2021 BC Sacred Music Symposium which will be held from July 16-18 2021. Please join our mailing list to receive updates as more details about the 2021 symposium become available.
We are proud to invite you to join us as we hold our 3rd Annual Sacred Music Symposium from July 17-19 2020 at Sts. Joachim & Ann Parish in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. The BC Sacred Music Symposium is Western Canada’s largest and most in-depth teaching conference on sacred music, and our program offers exciting opportunities for learning, singing, listening, and interacting with some of the best musicians and teachers in the Catholic world.
The BC Sacred Music Symposium is primarily focused on instruction and experience in the Catholic sacred music tradition. You will have the opportunity to participate in choral and director focused workshops, attend lectures and daily liturgies. As part of our 2020 program we will be featuring the Eastern (Byzantine) and Anglican Use rites for the first time.
What can I expect at the symposium?
- Opportunity to participate in choral or director focused workshops at your skill level. Learn repertoire and techniques that you can bring back to your parish!
- Attend plenary and breakout session presentations on topics of interest to those interested in sacred music and liturgy
- Participate in daily liturgies (Mass, Vespers, Compline) celebrated with the Church’s treasury of sacred music.
- Gala dinner and panel discussion with some of the best minds in Catholic church music today!
Who should attend?
- Anyone interested in the sacred music and liturgy of the Catholic tradition
- Parish musicians & choir directors
- Volunteer singers
- Priests, deacons and seminarians
2019 Symposium in Review
Epiphany Sacred Arts Guild attends the 2019 BC Sacred Music Symposium
About
The BC Sacred Music Symposium is an annual gathering of the faithful, and all those of good will, with an interest in the Catholic tradition of sacred music, especially Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony. Our initial symposium, an initiative started by our parish schola cantorum, was held in 2018 at Sts Joachim & Ann Parish in Aldergrove, BC. Since then the symposium has grown into an annual event drawing hundreds of participants from the lower mainland, Western Canada and the United States.
Purpose
The purpose of the BC Sacred Music Symposium is to promote the sacred music of the Catholic tradition, and to preserve it in its proper context – the sacred liturgy.
We believe that since “the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. (SC 10)”, the worthy celebration of the liturgy is the single greatest act that the Church can perform for the glorification of God and the salvation of souls.
We believe that, among the many treasure’s with which the Church adorns her liturgy, sacred music holds a unique place, and that the Church’s patrimony of sacred music, especially Gregorian Chant, should be available in every parish.
BC Sacred Music Symposium 