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Views from the Choir Loft

Biography • Patrick Torsell

Patrick Torsell · January 14, 2020

ATRICK TORSELL is the the second of four siblings, born and reared in the rolling hills of central Pennsylvania. After watching an episode of “The Joy of Music with Diane Bish” at age eight, he told his mother that he wanted to learn the pipe organ. Thanks to the devotion and sacrifices of his parents, he was able to take organ lessons and find a home practice organ, and by age 11 he was playing regularly for the local Catholic parish. Patrick’s father introduced him to the Traditional Latin Mass, which spurred on a deep love for Gregorian Chant, traditional hymnody, and sacred polyphony. His current full-time profession is in the ski resort industry in Colorado, where he also serves as a Staff Substitute Organist at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, CO, and Associate Organist at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Littleton, CO, an apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP).

*  PATRICK TORSELL • Publicity Photo

Patrick completed undergraduate studies in Ski Area Operations and has worked in the ski resort business for 12 years. He also spent two years of study and discernment at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, NE, where much of his time was devoted to sacred music as a seminary organist, chant tutor, and member of the polyphonic choir. He served for two years as organist, and two more as Choirmaster, at Blessed Sacrament Church in Stowe, Vermont, a role once held by the famous Maria Von Trapp. He was later the organist at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish in Littleton, CO for four years. At Mater Dei he directed two adult choirs including an auditioned choir with professional section leaders, and an open-membership choir, in addition to a youth and children’s Chorister program comprising more than 80 students ages 7-18 who learn not only the fundamentals of singing, but also history, philosophy, and theory of Gregorian Chant and Sacred Music.

Patrick also produces Chant Talk, a YouTube series discussing Gregorian Chant, especially accompaniment and chironomy, and other sacred music topics. His focus has always been liturgical music, but he also maintains a leisurely organ performance schedule and enjoys playing jazz piano and fingerstyle guitar for fun. In his leisure time, Patrick enjoys skiing, classic cars, remodeling old homes, and smoking an occasional cigar with a single malt Scotch.

 

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Biographies Last Updated: May 31, 2023

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About Patrick Torsell

Patrick Torsell is a staff substitute organist at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, CO, and associate organist at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (FSSP), Littleton, CO—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)
    I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Each of our sins was one more thorn in our Lord’s crown; one blow the more to His scourging.”

— Cardinal Merry Del Val (shortly before his death)

Recent Posts

  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension
  • “Breathtaking Photographs” • First Mass of Father Michael Caughey, FSSP (Muskegon, MI)
  • “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)

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