Local young Catholics lift their voices in music of praise at tri-state choral fest

This year, Grace Mattera, 10, a youth choir member at Holy Spirit Parish in Pequannock, took a musical leap of faith. This singer spent several weeks learning liturgical music from the Church’s rich historical repertoire to sing at a choral festival and Mass in New York City on March 2. There, she sang with 150 fellow young Catholics she never met before, led by a conductor she didn’t know.

Mattera stepped out of her musical comfort zone to join these other singers, grades 4–8, from the tri-state area, for the 2024 Pueri Cantores New York Children’s Choral Festival and Mass at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Manhattan. James Wetzel, music director and organist of St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Man­hattan, conducted several combined children’s choirs from parishes and schools of the New York Archdiocese and neighboring dioceses, including Paterson. Mattera, a Holy Spirit School fourth grader, enjoyed singing Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by J.S. Bach.

“I love the melody, but it was a very challenging song,” said Mattera, who practiced the “high level” festival repertoire with the rest of Holy Spirit’s children’s choir, led by Jennifer Behnke, the parish’s music coordinator. She also was the on-site coordinator for the festival. Mattera said, “It was fun — new and interesting. It was my first time. It was great being with the other kids. I love praying to God at Mass by singing.”

Festival singers included children from St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester, who belong to children’s choirs, which sing for Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH) Parish and School of St. Elizabeth, both in Bernardsville in the Metuchen Diocese. Participating young people sang various traditional and modern pieces — both complex and accessible — in languages such as Latin, English, and Spanish. The event started with warm-up, placement in choirs, and rehearsals, followed by the festival, which took place in the context of the Mass.

The American Federation of Pueri Cantores is the national student choral organization of the Catholic Church and the American division of the children’s choir of the Vatican.

“This music is for the worship of God. We Catholics believe God is truth, beauty, and goodness. When these kids learn this beautiful music, it connects them to the universal Church,” said Behnke, associate evangelization director of the Newark Archdiocese. “The text of this music comes from the Mass, Scripture, and the saints. It has longevity. It will grow with these children.”

It was the second festival appearance for the children from Bernardsville, which “made them more confident,” said Bill Alford, OLPH music minister and St. Elizabeth’s music teacher.

A Bernardsville chorister told Alford, “The Pueri Cantores Choral Festival was an amazing experience! It wasn’t just about singing. It was about becoming closer to the people in your choir, coming closer to the relationship you have with music, and growing in your relationship with God.”