Photo Courtesy of Floriani

WOODSTOCK—Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony and the sound of the Church’s centuries-old musical tradition will fill St. Michael the Archangel Church Nov. 21-22, when the Catholic men’s vocal ensemble Floriani comes to Woodstock.

The sacred music weekend will culminate Saturday evening with a full Floriani concert at 6:30 p.m. in the church sanctuary. The concert is free and open to the public, and a free-will offering will be accepted.

A Floriani concert is an experience of transcendent sacred beauty, with music spanning thousands of years and bridging the gap between east and west, ancient and original.

But the weekend is designed to be more than a concert. On Saturday, Nov. 21, Floriani will lead a chant and sacred music workshop for singers from St. Michael the Archangel and throughout the Atlanta area. Participants will work with the ensemble on the music of the Church and then put that formation immediately into practice.

The workshop will culminate at the 5 p.m. Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, when Floriani will lead a combined choir including the St. John Bosco Choir, members of St. Michael’s scholas and singers from other parishes attending the workshop.

That movement—from learning sacred music, to singing it in the liturgy, to hearing it presented in concert—reflects Floriani’s mission.

Floriani is a professional Catholic men’s vocal ensemble dedicated to the renewal of sacred music in the life of the Church. Describing its mission as being a “Voice of Sacred Music Revival,” the ensemble seeks not simply to preserve the Church’s musical inheritance, but to help Catholics encounter it as a living tradition of prayer, beauty and evangelization.

Through concerts, liturgies, recordings and educational programs around the country, Floriani introduces audiences to the Church’s treasury of sacred music while also helping parish musicians gain the skills and confidence to carry that tradition into their own communities. At the center of that mission is the conviction that sacred beauty has the power to draw the human heart toward God.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has described that effect after hearing Floriani sing at Mass.

“Sacred beauty has the power to lift hearts and minds and draw them into contemplation of Divine beauty,” he said. “I have personally witnessed this effect at Masses sung by Floriani.”

He praised the ensemble for using its musical gifts not to draw attention to itself, but to “magnify the sacred in worship.”

That distinction is important to Floriani. Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony were created not primarily for the concert hall, but for the worship of God. Floriani’s work seeks to restore an awareness of sacred music not as decoration added to the liturgy, but as a means of helping the faithful enter more deeply into its prayer.

The Woodstock weekend will give Catholics several ways to experience the tradition. Singers can participate directly through Saturday’s workshop and Mass. Parishioners and visitors can hear Floriani in its liturgical setting at the 5 p.m. Vigil Mass and again at Sunday morning Masses. And Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. concert will offer the broadest invitation of the weekend: an evening devoted entirely to the beauty and breadth of Catholic sacred music.

Floriani previously visited the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 2023 and now returns with a weekend intended not simply to present sacred music, but to help cultivate it within local parish life.