On June 2, 2015, a new CD by the monks of Norcia will be released: BENEDICTA: Marian Chant from Norcia. Based in Norcia, Italy, the Benedictine community is made up of 18 men, half American citizens and the other half a diverse group of men from around the world.
Monks and their devotional singing were not heard in Norcia for nearly 200 years, until 1998 when Fr. Cassian Folsom, Prior, settled with his community in the monastery located on the ancient ruins of the first home of St. Benedict (and his sister St. Scholastica). The people of Norcia welcomed the monks with open arms—in fact, they had circulated a petition to bring monks back to their town and received 4,000 signatures. (There are only 5,000 peopel living there.)
An American who studied at the world-renowned voice program at Indiana University, Fr. Cassian says, “Music is essential to the monastic life… chant is part of the air we breathe.”
The music on BENEDICTA is masterfully captured by 11x Grammy Award winning producer, Christopher Alder, who calls the monk’s chant, "meditative… something eternal…something timeless." DeMontfort Music has teamed with Universal Music Classics and Decca Records to bring the monk’s music to the public., which will be available everywhere on June 2nd.
And today we celebrate...