Mary Storick Discovers Cappella at University of Mary

Hi! I’m Mary, a student at the University of Mary majoring in music.

When I graduated from Seton Home Study School, I decided to come to Mary because it was affordable and had many opportunities for scholarships, as well as being close to home.

Another significant reason was its great Catholic environment; the university does all it can to help foster the Catholic faith of its students.

One day during my freshman year, I was walking through the Music Department and saw a poster on the wall announcing auditions for a new chapel choir starting the following fall.

The choir would be called Cappella, which is Italian for chapel, and sizable scholarships would be offered to students willing and able to participate in its vision. I auditioned and was excited to be accepted into the new chapel choir.

Being part of Cappella for its first two semesters has been an amazing experience, and I am grateful for it.

A Mission to Share Sacred Music

Our mission as a choir is to provide beautiful sacred music to the students at Mary through Mass and sung evening prayer, and to others as well. We travel several times a year to sing at Mass and allow others to experience beautiful sacred music.

In many of the other choirs I have been part of, we would often only learn a few pieces of music at a time. In Cappella, however, because of the high level of musicianship within each one of its members, we have been able to learn and perform almost 60 different pieces over the course of the year.

It is an amazing feeling to sing such a vast amount of difficult choral works from various composers and perform many of them again and again for the glory of God. Cappella has also led me to forge new relationships with many wonderful people. I would say that the most important part of any group is the people you share it with, and the same is true with Cappella. Everyone in the group knows, loves, and serves God in one of the best ways they can: with beautiful sacred music.

As a graduate of Seton Home Study School, I was used to incorporating the Catholic faith into every subject, not just our religion books. This helped me to realize that my Catholic faith is something that can and should be included in every part of my life.

My time at Mary has given me an even deeper experience of this. The University of Mary is an amazing Catholic school, vibrant with wonderful students and professors, all striving to live out and grow in their Catholic faith.