This website is now an archival resource only. No further updates from 13 Nov 2026. New website for Holy Eucharist Parish, North Canberra coming soon.

Our Music

Qui bene cantat, bis orat. He who sings well prays twice.

Music at St Joseph’s is dedicated to the sacred music of the Catholic Church, offered for the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful. In keeping with the Second Vatican Council, which gives Gregorian chant pride of place in the Roman liturgy and holds the organ in high esteem (Sacrosanctum Concilium 116, 120). We sing the Proper chants of the Mass and place chant, sacred polyphony and choral music in the English tradition at the heart of our liturgies, drawing on the Church’s treasury in Latin and English from the Middle Ages to the present day. We encourage the congregation to take up its own sung part, above all the responses, the psalm and the chants of the Ordinary.

Our Choirs

The St Joseph’s Choristers, directed by Brian Li, is a volunteer adult mixed voice choir, bound in charity and a shared love of music, with a focus on chants, polyphony and pieces in the English choral tradition. The choir sings for Sunday Mass and leads our Choral Vespers. You can follow the choir on Linktree, Instagram and Facebook.

The St Joseph’s Junior Schola Cantorum trains young singers aged 8 to 16 in choral singing and in the faith, drawing inspiration from the Royal School of Church Music’s Voice for Life programme. The choristers are taught by Brian Li and Adrienne Cullity, accompanied by Adrian Cullity, and sing the Saturday vigil Mass at the close of each term. More about the Junior Schola.

Our aim is to offer the people of Canberra the beauty and solemnity of the Church’s own music, to draw hearts to prayer through it, and to hand this inheritance on to a new generation of singers.

Music at St Joseph’s is led by Brian Li, Director of Music, with our principal organist Vincent Tang, and organists Andrew Chew, Adrienne Cullity, Adrian Cullity, and a team of cantors and singers.

Sunday Mass

The St Joseph’s Choristers sing the Sunday Mass at 8:30am each week, and the principal feasts and solemnities of the year, including Holy Week and the Sacred Paschal Triduum, and Christmas.

The Entrance and Communion antiphons of the day, taken from the Roman Missal and Simple English Propers, are sung. The Ordinary of the Mass is sung to settings the congregation knows well: the Mass of St Francis and the Missa Primitiva through the year, the Mass of Christ the Redeemer in the Christmas and Easter seasons, and the Mass of Our Lady, Help of Christians in Advent and Lent. The responsorial psalm is taken from the Chabanel Psalms and is led by our cantors, and the hymns are chosen from the Church’s great repertoire, from plainsong and the classic English hymn tunes to the finest of our own time.

At Communion the choir regularly offers a motet or anthem fitting to the day, drawn from composers such as Tallis, Byrd, Farrant, Mozart, Attwood, Goss, Elgar and Chilcott.

Choral Vespers

On selected Sunday afternoons through the year, the St Joseph’s Choristers sing Choral Vespers at 4pm: the Church’s Evening Prayer, with sung psalms, hymns and motets set among silence and prayer, concluding with Eucharistic Benediction.

Choral Vespers lasts about 45 minutes and is open to all: those who love choral and sacred music, and those simply looking for an hour of prayer and stillness at the end of the week.

Recent Vespers have included music by Byrd, Tallis, Elgar, Parry, Rutter and Caudana.

At 3pm before each Vespers, an informal Come and Sing session gives singers the chance to rehearse some of the music and sing it in the service with the choir.

Dates are on our Home page. RSVP through Choral Vespers Canberra, and follow the St Joseph’s Choristers on Humanitix to stay in touch.

Join us & Support us

Rehearsals and Come & Sing

Singers who share our love of sacred music are warmly welcome.

The choir rehearses at St Joseph’s Church, 58 Boronia Drive, O’Connor, on Tuesdays 7:30pm.

The Come and Sing session before each Choral Vespers is a good first step. Find out more here.

Support Our Music

If you share our love of sacred music and would like to support the choirs, music library, and replacement of our 40-year-old organ, please reach out to us here.