LUMEN HILARE

LUMEN HILARE is a sacred music project  begun in 2016. Its first effort presents music for female voices written and arranged for the teachers of La Conquistadora Academy in Albuquerque, NM.  After working on the music for eight months, they took their efforts to the Los Angeles recording studio of Vox.  There they were joined by five additional singers to record with engineer Michael Harris. Includes chant, a capella and accompanied works, All compositions and arrangements are copyrighted and available for sale to performance groups.

The backstory on how this album came to be is also pretty interesting.  It begins with a question:

How did 5 young traditional Catholic school teachers from Albuquerque, New Mexico (by way of St. Mary's, Kansas) find themselves in a music recording studio in Hollywood, CA?  

It all started when these 5 young women wanted piano lessons from Albuquerque parishioner & organist, Dr. Mark Ruttle (a teacher and music composer.) They of course couldn't afford said lessons on their meager teacher's salaries.  So Dr. Ruttle made a deal with them:  He would teach them weekly lessons if they, in return, would learn to sing the chant and other sacred music he was composing and/or arranging.  So each Thursday afternoon for the duration of that school year,  that's exactly what they did.  By Memorial Day weekend, they traveled to a Los Angeles music recording studio where, joined by 5 professional singers,  recorded 22 chants & hymns.  The result is the double album entitled "Lumen Hilare." 

How did the Hollywood recording studio, Vox--more accustomed to recording everything and everyone from Lady Gaga to video game soundtracks--fare during this massive influx of supernatural grace?  Well, that's another story altogether.