Rooted in Prayer
and Tradition.Restoring the Sacred through the Living Language of the Church.
A Treasure of
Inestimable Value
The Gregorian Chant Academy exists to lead souls into deeper union with Christ by learning to sing the sung prayer of the Catholic Church. We believe this is not merely a genre of historical music, but an invitation to join the prayer of Christ to the Father — the primary musical language of the Roman Rite, a language that lifts the heart to God.
We rebuild Catholic culture not just by offering beautiful performances to listen to, but by actively forming the faithful. By demystifying the Church's ancient music, we equip everyday choir members, clergy, and families with the tools to pray the authentic language of the Roman Rite with prayerful reverence, confidence, and artistic beauty.
We train directors and musicians to transmit this repertoire not as a preserved museum piece, but as a living, breathing tradition — one that continues to form souls and glorify God in the liturgy of the Church today.
We teach Gregorian chant as a prayer and a musical language. Through our Master Course, we offer a structured, 7-step system that balances theological understanding with practical, confident vocal execution — avoiding the extremes of making chant overly academic or over-simplified.
Sacred music is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art... The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given principal place in liturgical services.
— Sacrosanctum Concilium, Vatican IIA Voice Saved
for the Sacred
I have been singing the traditional Catholic liturgy since I was a boy soprano in 1997, but the fact that I have a voice at all is a miracle.
When I was two years old, pneumonia nearly took my life. My left lung filled entirely with fluid, and my right lung was close behind. As doctors drained the fluid, a severe infection lingered. Unbeknownst to anyone, my mother began praying a novena to St. Thérèse of Lisieux for my survival. During that novena, my father unexpectedly gifted her a white pajama set — embroidered all over with red roses. At my very next doctor's visit, the infection had vanished without medical explanation.
Every breath I have taken since that day has been a gift. That early encounter with fragility shaped my entire approach to chant: it is an act of profound gratitude and prayer, not mere vocal technique.
From Hollywood
to the Monastery
Formed from
Birth
Christopher was born in 1986 in Sacramento, California, into a family attending the Traditional Latin Mass. He grew up immersed in Gregorian Chant and sacred music: at Mass, and in the home. At home he would play cassette tapes, vinyl records and cds of the monks of Solesmes and Santo Domingo de Silos, and early music ensembles such as Sequentia, Ensemble Gilles Binchois and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Around age seven, he would play chant recordings and follow along in his grandfather's chant book (Liber Usualis), teaching himself how square notation worked by tracing the melodies on the page as he listened. At age eleven, he joined the parish schola and choir as a boy soprano — and at fifteen began formal training under choir director Jeffrey Morse, a student of the renowned Dr. Mary Berry of Cambridge. It was this early, total immersion in the living tradition — before he could name what he was absorbing — that formed the bedrock of everything to come.
Leaving the Stage Behind
Originally pursuing a career in acting and filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in Hollywood, Christopher graduated in 2008. But after witnessing the moral degradation of the entertainment industry firsthand, he walked away. He supported himself as a professional welder and fabricator, quietly redirecting his life toward the pursuit of sacred music. In 2010 he made his first pilgrimage to the Abbey of Solesmes — the encounter that changed everything.
Formed by the Monastery
In 2014, Christopher entered the traditional Benedictine Monastero di San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy, living as a postulant. While he ultimately discerned that the religious life was not his calling, he left as a Benedictine Oblate — a spiritual affiliation he lives out to this day. The monastic formation deepened his understanding of chant not as performance, but as the Church's daily prayer.
Rising from
the Ashes
In March 2019, tragedy struck. Christopher, his wife, and his father lost everything in a devastating house fire. They spent months rebuilding their lives from the ashes. Faced with severe underemployment in the aftermath, Christopher decided it was time to pursue a dream he had held since 2010: building a professional, accessible platform to teach Gregorian Chant to the world.
A Mission
Restored
In January 2021, Christopher launched the Gregorian Chant Academy. Within two years, the channel surpassed 30,000 subscribers, allowing him to close his woodworking business and dedicate his life entirely to the restoration of sacred music. Today he lives in the rural mountains of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, with his wife and five children, where they attend a Traditional Latin Mass parish served by the FSSP.
Formation &
Experience
Christopher brings over 25 years of study, performance, and directing experience to the Academy. His formal studies, certifications, and key positions include:
- Advanced studies at the Abbey of Solesmes (2010) under the direction of the late Dom Daniel Saulnier
- Advanced studies at Le Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance in Tours, France (2013)
- Postulant (2014) and current Oblate of the traditional Benedictine Abbey of San Benedetto in Norcia, Italy
- Guest Instructor at the Abbey of Solesmes summer conference (2025)
- Level 1 Certification in the neuro-kinesiology vocal training of Andrew Byrne (The Singing Athlete, 2025)
- Registered Singing Teacher through Vocal Process Ltd, UK
- Organiser & Host of the 2022 and 2023 International Gregorian Chant Conferences (featuring Msgr. Alberto Turco, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Fr. Chad Ripperger, and others)
- Mel Gibson's private Holy Family Chapel — Agoura Hills, CA
- The historic Five Wounds Church — San Jose, CA
- Cathedral of St. Thomas Aquinas — Reno, NV
- St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church — Coeur d'Alene, ID
- Mentored by Msgr. Alberto Turco — friend and disciple of Eugène Cardine and Dom Jean Claire
- Collegial relationship with Prof. Giacomo Baroffio — one of the world's leading musicologists in medieval sacred music
- Direct student of Dom Daniel Saulnier — final heir of the Mocquereau–Gajard–Cardine lineage at Solesmes
Gregorian Chant is not repertoire. It is not performance. It is not a style. It is sung prayer — the voice of the Church raised to God in the form He has loved for fifteen centuries. We do not teach music. We form singers who pray.
— Christopher Jasper, Founder · Gregorian Chant Academy