English Choir serves the Novus Ordo Masses at 9:30 am, singing primarily in English. We lead the congregation in traditional hymns and enhance the liturgy with beautiful motets, creating a prayerful and uplifting worship experience.

The choir has weekly rehearsals.

Latin Choir serves the Latin Sunday Mass at 11:30 am, bringing the beauty of sacred music to life by singing the Ordinary of the Mass. The choir performs from both square and modern notation, offering a blend of tradition and contemporary practice. The choir also sings Latin motets and polyphonies, enriching the liturgy with timeless works of choral music.

The choir has weekly rehearsals.

It is a group specifically designed for kids and teenagers interested in learning how to sing Gregorian chant and Latin hymns. The goal is to help them develop the skills needed to sing various sacred music. We employ the Ward Method, a progressive teaching approach tailored for elementary school children. This method teaches music, including square notation, ear training, sight-reading, and basic conducting, using the Solesmes method.

The classes are held weekly for children aged 7-13.

The Schola sings Gregorian Chant at the High Latin Mass on Sundays, First Fridays (Sacred Heart of Jesus), First Saturdays, and on feast days celebrated with a Sung Mass during the week. The Schola chants the Mass Propers and the Mass Ordinaries from the 1962 Liber Usualis in accordance with the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. The women’s schola and men’s schola have weekly rehearsals.

The choirs and scholas are under the leadership of Karolina Zapolska.

Star of the Sea Church is offering a Gregorian Chant Class for Adults starting on March 11th, 2026. The classes will be held on Wednesdays from 6:40 p.m. to 8:10 p.m, beginning March 11. The class curriculum will cover the following lessons:

1. How to read Square Notes
2. Ear Training
3. How to sight-read and sing
4. Introduction to the basics of conducting chant through applying the Solesmes Method. The ability to sing (i.e., “carry a tune”) is essential to grasp the beauty of fully Gregorian Chant, which sets it apart from other forms of music.

The 6-week course costs $150

Because Gregorian chant is best experienced through singing, applicants must be able to “carry a tune.” To ensure this, an audition is required for admission to the class.

For more information or for enrollment in the parish’s Gregorian chant classes, please contact Karolina Zapolska.

On November 1, 2017, a beautiful 19th-century organ was installed at Star of the Sea Church and solemnly blessed on December 3, the First Sunday of Advent. The instrument replaced a 1981 Schoenstein organ and is an 1889 Woodberry & Harris tracker organ, a fine example of early American organ building.

Originally built in 1889 for the First Universalist Church in Melrose, the organ was relocated in 1978 to Avalon Community Church on Santa Catalina Island, where it was restored by master organ builder Manuel Rosales. After 1995, it was moved to the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley before finally finding its home at Star of the Sea.

The parish’s former Schoenstein organ—its second organ—was offered for sale. Built in 1981 during the transition of ownership from Lawrence Schoenstein to Jack Bethards, it represents an important period in the company’s history. The Schoenstein Company has built and maintained many of America’s finest organs and has served as a consultant for world-renowned instruments, including those at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and the Washington National Cathedral.