The History of Magnificat Institute

Magnificat Academy was founded in 2005 as a Choir School in Warren, Massachusetts, with a full academic curriculum for boys and girls in grades 4-12. From 2005 to 2008, the school flourished and its Choir brought joy and inspiration to many through its Liturgies, Concerts, and recordings. In 2008, Magnificat was invited to the Cathedral of St. Paul in Worcester, where it served as the Cathedral Choir School until 2011. From 2011 until 2017, the work of the Academy focused on the support of various sacred music projects, in collaboration with other schools and institutions.

In 2018, Magnificat entered an exciting new phase of its mission, as a full-fledged Institute dedicated to the renewal of sacred music in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Thus the new name: Magnificat Institute of Sacred Music. Based in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and led by its founding director, Paul Jernberg, we are grateful to have the opportunity to serve Parishes, Communities, and Dioceses throughout the United States and abroad.

Our Founder

Paul Jernberg is the Founder and Director of the Magnificat Institute of Sacred Music.

Born in Chicago in 1953, Paul's early professional formation included music and piano performance studies at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of DePaul University in Chicago.

His early career in secular music included work as accompanist, performer, and director in the fields of ballet, opera, and musical theater. Alongside this work in music, Paul was also a professional swimming coach, holding positions in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Arizona State University in Tempe, and Gothenburg, Sweden.

In Sweden, 1983-1993, Paul's musical career expanded to include choral directing and extensive composition. Through living next to a Franciscan monastery and participating daily in their liturgical life, he was introduced to the treasures of grace-filled Gregorian chant and Eastern Orthodox sacred music.

Since returning to the U.S. in 1993, Paul has been a parish music director, composer, and teacher: in Chicago’s inner city, in Peoria, Illinois, and in Massachusetts. During his ten years at Trivium School in Lancaster, Massachusetts, he taught not only music but also English Literature and Composition, Theology, Latin, French, and Algebra.

In 2005 Paul became the founding director of Magnificat Academy, a choir school with a full academic curriculum for grades 4-12 in Warren, Massachusetts. After flourishing in Warren for three years, and then becoming the Choir School of St. Paul's Cathedral in Worcester, Magnificat was obliged to discontinue classes in 2011 in the midst of national and local economic crises. Subsequently it continued its educational mission through the support of various projects, until its transformation in 2018 to a full-fledged Institute of Sacred Music.

In the summer of 2014, the renowned Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle recorded Paul’s Mass of Saint Philip Neri, which is the first published musical setting of the entire Ordinary of the Mass in English, for congregation and choir. Having received wide acclaim, his music is now being sung in parishes throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Sweden.