About Schola
For 32 years the Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe has shared the sounds of sacred music masterpieces in the chapels, missions, cathedrals and basilicas New Mexico and Colorado locally, and Italy and Ireland internationally. Schola is known locally as “Santa Fe’s Sacred Music Ensemble” and "Santa Fe's favorite ensemble."
Dr. Billy Turney founded Schola in 1990 during his 25-year tenure as principal organist and Director of Music of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis in Santa Fe. With 37 continual years of active sacred music duties at the Cathedral, he knows nearly every acoustical nuance of that sacred space.
Turney is a Santa Fe native and began his music studies with the Sisters of the Loretto Academy at a young age. He experienced the Sisters singing the chants of Vespers in the Loretto Chapel, an experience that shaped his sacred music career.
Turney studied Gregorian chant and polyphonic music of the Renaissance at the Vatican at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, and has the unique perspective of presenting this special sacred music in its’ intended context and environment.
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The singers of Schola:
Anna George - Alto/tenor
Jackie Mattos - alto
Denise Moore - soprano
Susan Roller Whittington - alto
Lucinda Sydow - alto/soprano
Maestro Billy Turney - baritone