Loyola Marymount University is a top-ranked national university by U.S. News and World Report, which places LMU among the top six Jesuit universities in the country and in the top six private universities in California. Founded in 1911, LMU is a Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount university with more than 7,100 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate and law students. LMU offers 56 undergraduate majors and 56 minor programs, along with 46 master’s degree programs, three doctorate programs and 12 credential/authorization programs. LMU’s intercollegiate athletics teams compete in the West Coast Conference with 14 Division I varsity sports.

LMU news and events are found at: www.lmu.edu/news.

Loyola Marymount University

New Row

Contact expert @[Full Name](fullname), @[Job Title](job_title) at @[Organization](organization) for media, speaking, professional opportunities and more.

@[Full Name](fullname) at @[Organization](organization) | Contact Form

Expert Inquiry

Open Sans

American Choral Directors Association

Southern California Vocal Association

The National Collegiate Choral Organization

The International Federation of Choral Music. 

106_music_spread_thy_voice__handel.mp3

111_unclouded_day__arr_kirchner.mp3

Mary Breden is former Director of Choral Activities at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. A member of the music faculty at LMU since 1992, Breden also taught in both the choral and music education programs at San Jose State University and The University of Texas at Austin.

At Loyola Marymount, Breden served as department chair from 1994-2014. As supervisor of the Choral Conducting Concentration, she taught such courses as Choral Conducting and Choral Methods. Under her leadership the LMU Concert Choir, Women's Chorus, and Consort Singers appeared in a variety of venues throughout California, as well as New York City, Boston, Portland, Seattle, Tucson and Phoenix. The ensembles also appeared at ACDA Western Division Conventions, toured with Michael Crawford and appeared with him on his PBS special Michael Crawford... Music of the Night. Internationally, Breden conducted the LMU Choruses in concerts throughout Italy, Germany, Austria, and France, and she appeared as a guest conductor in Brussels, Belgium.

As a choral clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor, Breden is a Past President of the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association. She has volunteered on the Education and Community Outreach Committee for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and is a member of the Southern California Vocal Association, the National Collegiate Choral Organization, and the International Federation of Choral Music. She has articles and choral reviews published in The Choral Journal, professional publication of the American Choral Directors Association.

Mary Breden received her M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Choral Music from Arizona State University where she studied conducting with Douglas McEwen. Her undergraduate studies began at the Munich, Germany campus of the University of Maryland, with private piano studies in Munich and in Wiesbaden at the Wiesbadener Konservatorium. She completed the B.A. and B.M. degrees in piano performance at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles where she studied conducting with Paul Salamunovich, and was, for several years, his accompanist with the choruses at Mount St. Mary's, Loyola University, and Loyola Marymount University.

Choral Activities

Music Education

Choral Conducting

Choral Methods

Choral Clinician

Choral Adjudicator

German

French

English

IMDb

Los Angeles Master Chorale

France with Mary Breden - Paris & Northern France

Professor Emeritus of Choral Studies, Former Director of Choral Activities

Special Edition - ReRelease!

Life is too Short to Sing Badly is a beautiful documentary short by that chronicles the music making legacy that Mary Breden (Doctor of Musical Arts) is carrying forward from her mentor, American choral conductor, Paul Salamunovich.  Salamunovich (b. 1927) is the director emeritus of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and served as the director of the choral program at St. Charles Boromeo church for 60 years.  Salamunovich also received Papal Knighthood in 1969.

As an expert in Gregorian chant, and Sacred music Breden continues this tradition with her undergraduate students at Loyola Marymount University.  Her teaching goes far beyond the music making: the bigger lessons is that the teaching will carry on further into her students lives.  She says "Life is too short to sing badly . . . more importantly, life is too short to LIVE it badly," and that is the bigger lesson that she is trying to teach.

In this short film are clips from the World Premier performance of  Morten Lauridsen's Ubi Caritas, a five part motet, based on the original Gregorian Chant that was composed sometime between the 4th and the 10th centuries to commemorate the washing of the feet for Maundy Thursday.  The choir the travels to Boston to sing at Boston College, for Father Thomas O'Malley, S.J..  Dean Tom Kelley, of LMU's Communication and Fine Arts department also has some cometary and insight into the emotional tonality created by this choir.

Other interviews include: Claire Babcock-Bushore, Greg Sarkisian, Gabriella Juarez, Mary Breden, Jeff DeCaen, Dolf Ramos, Diana Peña, and Marie Sigl. 

This college favorite shows the joy of the music making, as well as the joy of college kids having fun together, as part of what makes the hard work all worthwhile.

Life is too Short to Sing Badly

Select Inquiry Type