The American Federation of Pueri Cantores has organized its 2026 Festival Season which will include 18 festivals spread throughout the country – from Southern California to Houston to Boston, and we anticipate involving more than 3,000 young singers from different schools, homeschool programs, and parishes around the nation. New Festivals are being held in Columbus, Ohio, Omaha, Nebraska, Miami, Florida, and Morristown, New Jersey.
Most of the 2026 Festivals will take place in the context of the Eucharistic liturgy. The Treble Voice Festivals & Masses (for grades 4-8 or 4-12) and Mixed Voice Festivals & Masses (for grades 4-12 or 9-12) feature a broad repertoire of Gregorian chant, classical and modern polyphonic music, hymnody, canons/rounds, and contemporary compositions in English, Spanish, and Latin. The High School Festivals (for grades 9-12) explore a different sacred “mini-Masterwork” each year, with rehearsals culminating in a late afternoon/evening concert accompanied by chamber orchestra. The repertoire that is carefully selected by the national music committee is practical, accessible, and chosen with the intention that the Pueri Cantores repertoire can also be used in parish and school liturgies and concerts year-round.
At each Festival location, hundreds of young singers gather with their peers around the region for a day of musical excellence, community, spiritual and personal growth, and academic and cultural enrichment. In preparation of the Festival day, individual choirs spend months rehearsing and learning the Festival repertoire with their choir directors and music teachers. On the day of the Festival, the combined choir of hundreds of students is led by a nationally recognized Catholic conductor/educator who engages and inspires the gathered choristers, bringing the sacred music to life. The Festival day lasts 7 hours with ample rehearsal time, lunch/snack breaks, opportunities for children to interact with friends old-and-new, and the day culminates with the Festival Mass, led by the local ordinary, where the trained combined choir shares their beautiful young voices to enhance the liturgy.
