Performing for God
By Br. Jerome Masters, O.P.
From the midwest to Florida to Washington, DC to Rome and now Arlington, VA. Fr. Vincent Ferrer Bagan, O.P., has been taking his musical talents around the world to promote and teach sacred music and is currently serving as the Director of Music at the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More in Arlington, VA.
Interested in music from a very young age, Fr. Vincent Ferrer would play piano for Mass in high school. He also took organ lessons and was involved in his high school marching band and he knew he wanted to pursue a music career. He would go on to study at St. Olaf ’s College in Minnesota and received a degree in vocal music education. “It was during college that I started to think about the priesthood and religious life,” Fr. Vincent Ferrer said, which led him to Ave Maria University in Florida. During his time there, he earned a master’s degree in philosophy while working as a music teacher and church music director. During his time at the Dominican House of Studies, he served as both the assistant schola director and schola director. Upon his ordination in 2015, he went to the Catholic University of America to earn a master’s degree in Sacred Choral Music. After receiving the degree, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island to work at Providence College as a Visiting Instructor of Music and Theology—which led him to Rome to work at the Pontifical North American College as the Director of Liturgical Music.
When describing his duties as Director of Music, Fr. Vincent Ferrer said, “On a musical level, if you compare it to being a school music teacher, one major performance difference is that you’re doing a fair amount of rehearsal toward a few concerts per year. Whereas in a church music setting, the pro and con is that you’re performing every week.” He uses the term perform intentionally, because church choirs are performing at a high level, “principally for God.” They are not performing to put on a concert but to put on a formal performance for God to help supply the Mass with beautiful music. “For our cathedral choir, we’re doing about two choral pieces per week,” Fr. Vincent Ferrer said. It takes time to be familiar with certain pieces and to teach them effectively to his choir. Fr. Vincent Ferrer also composes some music for liturgies, such as a hymn that he composed for the golden jubilee for the Diocese of Arlington that will be sung across the diocese. “On the other hand, there can be a lot more administration that goes into it.” In his cathedral choir, Fr. Vincent Ferrer has 8 professional singers and 25 volunteers. He does get to work with the bishop to have approval for some diocesan liturgies such as ordinations and he some times will need to obtain permission for some pieces to be played at liturgies.
When asked about the benefits of being a priest and religious while also being Director of Music, Fr. Vincent Ferrer noted that it is an opportunity to provide formation to people on the beauty and meaning of the liturgy. Dominicans are liturgical and musical by nature since the friars chant the psalms of the Liturgy of the Hours every day as part of the rhythm of Dominican life. As people who live immersed in the liturgy, the friars are well equipped to help others appreciate and enter into the magnificent treasures of the liturgy and sacred music more deeply.
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Photo: The Catholic Herald
