The Cathedral of Saint Thomas More News:

Our Director

Fr. Vincent Ferrer Bagan, O.P., became the Director of Music for the Cathedral of St. Thomas More and the Diocese of Arlington in August 2022. He is a Dominican priest of the Province of St. Joseph.

Before coming to Arlington, he was the Director of Liturgical Music at the Pontifical North American College, the U.S. seminary in Rome. He served as choir director and principal organist, provided individual and group instruction for the seminarians on singing the liturgy, and gave conferences on liturgical music. Prior to that, he was Visiting Instructor of Music and Theology at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, where he directed choirs in the music department and campus ministry and taught courses in Gregorian chant, music theory, theology, and Western civilization.

A native of Waseca, Minnesota, he received the Bachelor of Music degree in vocal music education from St. Olaf College in 2006, singing in the St. Olaf Choir under Anton Armstrong. At St. Olaf, he also studied conducting with Robert Scholz, Steven Amundson, and Timothy Mahr; organ with John Ferguson and James Litton; and voice with Harriet McCleary. In 2017, he received the Master of Music in Sacred Music – Choral Music at The Catholic University of America, where he conducted the Women’s Chorus and studied with Leo Nestor and Timothy McDonnell.

Between those degrees, he received the Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, where he also served as assistant conductor of the choirs and instructor in musicianship. He was also music director at St. Raphael’s Catholic Church in Lehigh Acres and taught music at the Ave Maria Grammar and Preparatory School (now Donahue Academy). After entering the Dominican Order, he received the Master of Divinity and Licentiate of Sacred Theology degrees from the Dominican House of Studies, where he also directed the Schola Cantorum of the Dominican House of Studies, which produced the albums Gaudeamus and Christ Was Born to Save under his direction.

He resides at St. Dominic Priory in southwest Washington, D.C., and is involved in the priestly and religious ministries of his community.