The Saint Anselm College Choir

The Saint Anselm College Choir has won local renown for the musical and spiritual quality of its music. As the official choral group representing Saint Anselm College, it is appropriate to the Benedictine Tradition that the choir be primarily a liturgical choir.

The Choir is open to Saint Anselm students. Rehearsal and performance schedules are arranged in a way that respects the students' primary responsibility: i.e., attention to academic studies. The Choir, therefore, works with a limited amount of available rehearsal time, and seeks to produce the best music it possibly can within the time restraints necessary to allow Saint Anselm students a varied and balanced program of extracurricular and academic activities.

Additional Information

The Choir's repertoire includes the best of contemporary and traditional Christian music. Students are introduced to some of the great classics of Christian civilization, including Gregorian Chant, Palestrina, Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tallis and others in addition to some of the finer contemporary works written primarily for the American Catholic Church. Members of the choir are given the opportunity to perform music that is often only available to students who are majoring in music in more specialized institutions.

The choir serves the college community in several ways: It is a liturgical choir which sings at the Sunday Choral Eucharist at 7 p.m. and on other special occasions such as Family Weekend. Many students from the choir are invited to join special ensembles to sing other occasions including the Sunday Morning Mass at 11 a.m. Membership in these ensembles is by audition. The choir offers two concert performances each year, DecemberSong during the Advent Season and a spring concert usually held close to Easter.

The choir goes on tour occasionally to local parishes. Every two years the members of the choir have the opportunity to participate in a European Concert Tour. In past years they have been to Vienna, Prague, Leipzig, Rome, Venice, Florence, Budapest, Salzburg, Zurich, Belgium, Luxembourg, Paris, Nice, Cannes, Avignon, Monaco, Carcasonne, Montserrat and Barcelona, and Ireland.

Joining the Choir

To Register for an Audition

Email Eric Bermani, Campus Minister and Director of Liturgical Music, ebermani@anselm.edu with the following information:

  • Name, address and cell-phone number
  • Graduation year
  • Your voice part. (If you're not sure, we'll determine your part during the audition)
  • Some information about your prior experience
  • If you play an instrument proficiently (i.e., you can play to a metronome and have good sight-reading ability), please let me know.
  • If possible, a small picture file (of yourself, obviously).

All necessary information will be sent to you by email. After you are registered you will be contacted via your Saint Anselm email to arrange a time for your audition.

To be accepted into the choir, you need to pass a small audition. This audition is meant to assess your voice range, tone and pitch ability. It must be passed before you will be able to sing with the choir. In some cases, it may be necessary to arrange for individual coaching before becoming a member of the choir. If you have no prior experience, it is possible for you to become a member of this choir if you agree to regular coaching at the beginning of the year. If accepted into the choir, it will be necessary to purchase the appropriate concert attire. This will be available at the start of the academic year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Between 70 and 100 students, depending on how great the response is from your class.