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It was a homecoming of sorts last Friday evening as Floriani made its first trip to Thomas Aquinas College, New England. In a darkened Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel, the group’s four singers — all alumni of the California campus — set a solemn and prayerful tone, performing a selection of traditional Gregorian chant pieces, American folk hymns, and original compositions.

The Chapel’s pews were filled not only with students and faculty, but also neighbors, alumni, and other friends of the College who came to see the nationally acclaimed ensemble, which in July sang before 50,000 faithful at the National Eucharistic Congress. The hourlong concert, “O Death, Where is Thy Sting?” dwelt on the themes of the quattuor novissima, or Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.

Photos: Floriani Concert
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“We’re delighted to have the chance to sing for the New England campus,” said Thomas Quackenbush (’14), joined in the Chapel’s sanctuary by his fellow Floriani: Giorgio Navarini (’17), Joseph Daly (’19), and Graham Crawley (’20). A nonprofit organization, Floriani aims to revitalize sacred music in the Church and in the world.

“I think it’s important for Catholics to recognize that there is a treasury of Catholic sacred music that goes back to the time of Christ,” Mr. Navarini told a reporter from the Diocese of Springfield. “It’s part of our heritage, part of our patrimony, something we can own and hand to the following generations.”

Floriani’s origins trace back to the members’ student days on the California campus, when they staged viral Christmas flash mobs at local malls and sang the National Anthem at opening day for the city’s Little League. “We started as a barbershop group and shifted toward Gregorian chant later on,” said Mr. Crawley. “We sang at liturgies around the Ventura County area and saw the power that sacred music had on people. People would come up to us after Mass asking, ‘What on earth was that? Was that Catholic music?’ and we would say, ‘As a matter of fact, it’s the Catholic music!’”

The group’s members belonged to different classes, united by Mr. Navarini, who was a freshman when Mr. Quackenbush was a senior and then a senior by the time Mr. Crawley arrived as a freshman. “We went our separate ways until after the Covid lockdowns turned everything upside down. We got back in touch and still felt called to do this as a mission,” said Mr. Crawley. “It was something that we talked about at school, but never thought it was possible. Yet here we are, four years later.”

Students at Friday’s concert — the latest installment of the St. Vincent De Paul Lecture and Concert Series — were gratified to see the good work of TAC alumni in the world. “They sang two of my favorite chants!” said Andrew Le (’25). “I can honestly say that was some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard,” added Natalie Peterson (’27).

To preserve reverence in the Chapel, Floriani requested at the concert’s onset that attendees withhold their applause. At its conclusion, the group’s members led the audience in a spirited singing of the Salve Regina, directed toward the Chapel’s icon of its patroness, Our Mother of Perpetual Help.