Announcing the St. Cecilia Scholarship Winner!
- Jun 6
- 2 min read
Jacob Viola after winning our inaugural St. Cecilia Scholarship
Angelico Sacred music exists because there is a quiet yearning among American Catholics for sacred music born from our own culture. History shows us that the Church's greatest sacred art always reflects the culture of its birth. The Sistine Chapel silently shouts the Italian Renaissance. Notre Dame Cathedral silently shouts Medieval France.
So what musical art beautifully represents the faith of 21st-century America?
That gap is why I started composing sacred music. And it is why Angelico launched the St. Cecilia Scholarship. Together with the support of our patrons, we are investing in the future of the faith in America, because our nation needs to present Holy Mother Church with sacred musical art that we can truly call our own.
2026 ST. CECILIA SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
Jacob Viola
$1,000 Award - Sacred Choral Composition
New Composition: Lead, Kindly Light
This year, Angelico is awarding the St. Cecilia Scholarship for the first time. The recipient is Jacob Viola, a college composer asking the same question that started Angelico. When he received the award, he did not talk about the money. He said, “I knew that the Lord was confirming yet again the work He has entrusted to me, that of composing music for the Church.”
This is exactly who the St. Cecilia Scholarship was created for!
Jacob won the scholarship with his new setting of Lead, Kindly Light, Cardinal Newman's great hymn of trust in divine providence. He put into words something we have long believed, saying, “How often do parishes find a lack of music they can identify with, particularly in their own language? Providing the Church with a new setting of Lead, Kindly Light and sharing it with Angelico is a tremendous blessing and opportunity.”
Jacob also has his own website to host an additional body of other choral works he has created. He shows great promise as a faith-filled young composer, and because of the prayer and financial support of our patrons, we were able to tell Jacob that the Church is behind him.
“Set your minds on things that are above.” (Col 3:2)
For the beauty of the Church,
Ryan Everson
Composer & Founder, Angelico Sacred Music