Schola Gregoriana Maynooth is a joint NUI Maynooth and St Patrick’s College Maynooth project, founded in 2000. Its aim is to promulgate plainchant in performance and liturgy. It became an all-female group in 2007; membership comprises between six and eight female voices. The group has represented NUI Maynooth and St Patrick's College Maynooth at international conferences and festivals abroad, including Hungary in 2011 and Belgium in 2012. The Schola's present conductor, Darina McCarthy, is a John Hume scholar completing doctoral studies in historical musicology at NUI Maynooth. Her scholarship duties include lecturing and tutoring in the music department. In addition to a first-class BMus in composition from NUI Maynooth, she also holds a postgraduate law degree and a BA in English linguistics and philosophy from NUI Galway.

Raymond O'Donnell has been organist & Director of Music at Galway Cathedral since January 1994. A native of Dublin, he studied music and mathematical physics at NUI Maynooth, graduating in 1991 with a first-class honours MA in organ performance and interpretation. Besides playing the organ, his duties in the Cathedral include directing the Cathedral Choir as well as planning and implementing music for the Cathedral liturgy. Between 2006 and 2007 he oversaw a major rebuild of the Cathedral organ, by Irish organ-builder Trevor Crowe, which saw it become what is probably the finest symphonic instrument in Ireland today. In addition to his work in the Cathedral, he has a busy performing career which has seen him give recitals in Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, the UK and the USA; and in recent years he has returned to NUI Maynooth as a part-time lecturer in counterpoint.

Chants for St Nicholas

Introit: Statuit ei

Kyrie: Rex genitor (troped)

Responsory: Quadam die

Herbert Howells (1892-1981)

Rhapsody in D flat, op. 17 no. 1 (1919)

Chants for St Michael

Introit: Benedicite Dominum

Alleluia: Sancte Michael

Responsory: Factum est silentium

Louis Vierne (1870-1937)

From Symphony no. 2, op. 20 (1903)

II. Choral

Chants for St Michael

Antiphon: Stetit angelus

Responsory: Michael et angeli

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Le banquet céleste (1928)

Chants for St Nicholas & Our Lady

Antiphon: Veritas mea

Responsory: Ex eius tumba

Antiphon: Salve Regina

Herbert Howells

Rhapsody in C sharp minor, op. 17 no. 3 (1919)