Schola
At St. Augustine’s, we are committed to instilling a deep love of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful in all our students, as well as forming them in the tradition of the great achievements of the Western Catholic tradition. To this end, we believe that an appreciation of great art is necessary to instill in our students a love for beauty and to allow them to participate in the creation of beauty. Schola accomplishes this by allowing students to have a deep knowledge of and engagement with the great religious music of the Catholic church from all over the world, especially focusing on the great composers of the Western tradition, from Palestrina to Mozart to Bach.
Fostering Community
Not only does schola encourage an encounter with and participation in beauty and tradition, but the communal, cooperative nature of an all-school schola brings our students into deeper community with each other. We form our students in community, not as isolatos, and the arts are a perfect opportunity to put that principle into practice. Art and beauty is meant to be shared, and our schola enables that sharing through dependence on each other to create beautiful music. This sense of mutual giving is an integral part of our schola – between singer and director, between musicians, and between the artists and the audience – and is experienced in a tangible way at our annual Advent and Easter concerts.
Our Director
Lucia Campbell, born in Florence, Italy, is a graduate of the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence, where she studied cello and voice. Prior to dedicating herself to serving in the church, she had an active opera career that spanned Europe and the USA. An active church musician in Italy and the United States, in 2005 - 2020 Mrs. Campbell was the Director of Music at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, currently she holds the same position at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church in Bella Vista, AR.
Mrs. Campbell has been the Choir Director for the St. Augustine Home Enrichment Program since 2005. With this group she has toured in both the USA and Europe.
Santa Cecilia Schola
Our Sancta Cecilia Schola is for students who want to dedicate more time to studying music and vocal performance. Students spend time on Wednesdays learning additional pieces, are given priority for our pilgrimages, and have access to extra opportunities including recording professional tracks.
Students who want to dive deeper into the richness of Sacred Music are invited to join our Santa Cecilia Pilgrim Schola. The Santa Cecilia began as an “extra Schola” opportunity, but it has developed into something much greater. The Pilgrim Schola exists as a form of mission work to bring the beauty of Sacred Music to other parts of the world. It also brings students closer to each other through the practice of making music.
Thanks to our extraordinary director, Mrs. Lucia Campbell, our students have excelled in the repertoire of Holy Mother Church with a beauty and excellence rarely achieved anywhere. This excellence has been attested to by both Archbishop Sample and Cardinal Burke on our tour of the shrines of Wisconsin in the summer of 2022. To find out more about how to support our pilgrim school, please visit our Scholarship and Development page.
Students who are not a part of our Santa Cecilia Schola also have the opportunity to join us provided there are spaces after members of the Santa Cecilia Schola have registered.
Our Pilgrim Schola
Previous & Upcoming Tours
2019
Florence, Assisi, and Rome
2022
Catholic Shrines of Wisconsin
2023
Paris, Lisieux, Alençon, Chartres
2024
Florence, Assisi, Orvieto and Rome
2025
Montreal & Québec
Upcoming Concerts
Advent Concert
December 14, 2024 - 7 pm
Old St. Patrick’s in Whitmore Lake
Easter Concert
May 4, 2025 - 3 pm
Click here to view our events calendar for more details.