Director of Sacred Music at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Mishawaka, IN, and founder of the Saint Hildegard Project, Jerome Cole’s passion lies in performing and teaching the sacred music treasury of the Church.

 

Jerome’s professional accomplishments include the renewal of sacred music at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Mishawaka where he has emphasized beautiful hymnody, English and Latin chant, polyphony for the adult choir, Gregorian chant for the schola, and orthodox hymns and traditional anthems for the children’s choir.

 

He is a founding teacher at the St. Thomas More Academy of South Bend, implementing the Ward method and studies in music history and counterpoint.

 

His professional interests lie in the organ music of the Baroque, the choral music of the Renaissance, and the sacred music of Gregorian chant, especially in teaching chant and polyphony to amateur musicians.

 

He earned his Master’s degree in Organ Performance from the IU Jacobs School of Music, studying under Dr. Christopher Young, and his Bachelor’s degree in Music (Concentrations in Sacred Music and Organ) from Ave Maria University, studying under Dr. Timothy McDonnell, Dr. Susan Treacy, and Dr. Brice Gerlach.

 

Jerome is founder of the Saint Hildegard Project, a non-profit dedicated to the renewal and passing on of the Church's tradition of sacred music through teaching and performance.



The mission of The Saint Hildegard Project is to be a vessel which communicates the beauty of the Roman Catholic liturgical tradition through the Church's rich treasury of sacred music, performed and taught with musical integrity and artistic excellence, as an outpouring of fervent devotion to the purpose of the music itself, which is the edification of souls and the glory of God. The Project will achieve this end through annual workshops, providing services to parishes, performing choral music, chant, and traditional hymnody, partnering with schools and churches, and supplying the necessary resources and knowledge completely transform and brighten the Michiana area through the beauty of the rich treasury of that art which is of "greater value than any other."