Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 22, 2007

Nancy Deacon will take over the position on July 1.

Detroit — Church music is a handmaiden to the liturgy, and each enhances the other, says Nancy Deacon, who will become the new music director at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on July 1.

Deacon, 52, succeeds Norah Duncan IV, who retired earlier this year, as the cathedral's organist and director of the Cathedral Chorale, which is the parish choir, and the Archdiocesan Chorus, the larger choir that sings at major liturgies held at the cathedral.

She will also have supervisory responsibility for the Cathedral Children's Chorus, which is directed by Carol Mihalo, and direct the Cathedral Cultural Series.

"Norah Duncan left a wonderful legacy, and I'm very excited about all the possibilities of the position," she says.

Rather than championing any particular style of Church music, Deacon takes an inclusive view. "I embrace all of it that's going to add beauty to the liturgy and that will develop a singing assembly," she says.

Deacon points out that the encouragement of congregational singing in the liturgy is mandated by Church documents and supported by statements from the bishops.

And she adds, "I want all the beautiful traditions of the Church and all the multicultural traditions of the archdiocese to be included in the musical program at the cathedral."

Deacon has a master's degree in sacred music and liturgy from the Rensselaer Summer Music Program at St. Joseph's College, Rensselaer, Ind., and a bachelor's degree in music — with a keyboard and voice emphasis — from Maryville University in St. Louis, Mo. She also holds a certificate in Gregorian chant from the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome.

Deacon also serves on the national committee of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.

Before moving to the Detroit area with her husband, Kerry, last December, when he took a new job with a local firm, she was director of music at St. Gerard Majella Church in St. Louis.

The Deacons have two grown children — a son, Joseph, who is a computer technician; and a daughter, Katie, who is majoring in English at Fontbonne University in St. Louis.