Photo Courtesy of Bethany Hellman Photography
Originally from the rural cornfields of Illinois, I earned a BM in Flute Performance from the University of Illinois (2017). My formative musical experiences at the Newman Center on campus led me to pursue sacred music with full ardor after graduation. I pursued Gregorian chant studies at the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music in Rome, where I became an avid proponent of Gregorian semiology. I have studied Gregorian semiology under Fr. Anthony Ruff, Fr. Stephen Concordia, and Franz Prassl and have successfully taught Gregorian semiology to amateurs and semi-professionals alike. My church music experience has most recently led me to North Carolina, where I am currently pursuing a MM in Organ Performance under Dr. Olsen at UNCSA. I savor any opportunity to sing early music, especially Renaissance polyphony! Most recently I sang the chorales from Bach’s St. John Passion at Duke Chapel (April 2024). In my spare time, I love long walks, deep conversation, and watching college basketball.
mora-vocis is a deliberate play on words. In the Vatican edition, the mora (morae) vocis is a white space the size of puctum between a melisma and the neumes that follow it. It literally means “the delay of the voice”. Although it is not based on paleographic research, it is related to Gregorian chant and does have my name in it…