The Success of Mandatory Choir at St. Augustine Academy, Ventura

I hadn’t heard the St. Augustine Academy school choir for some time until recently, when I was blown away by this recording from their recent Dinner Auction. So I began an investigation into what has been going on musically there, which led me to the instigator of recent developments, Miss Laura Roberts. Laura, a long-time English teacher for St. Augustine Academy, was inspired by her participation in the Sacred Music Colloquium in 2008 to begin a sacred music choir at St. Augustine’s.

“When I returned to teaching, I began to notice what good voices some of my English Honors students had, and I thought we might be able to put together a nice choir for our weekly Masses. We started in Lent; the Headmaster liked it so much that we continued.” Emboldened by their success, Laura next proposed that they teach all the students to sing. She wanted a whole period dedicated to music training; she got 20 minutes three times a week, which has been enough to make a great change in the lives of the students, if not quite as much as she desired.