Liturgical music has always been a part of the Muellers — a family of five that worships at St. Louis Bertrand Church, 1104 S. Sixth Street.
It’s how musicians Christopher and Constanza Mueller met one another in New York City, the couple said in a recent interview.
“She wanted to be a cantor, and I was the music director,” Christopher Mueller said, recounting his early days as a church musician. Christopher Mueller began his role as the music director at St. Louis Bertrand Church in 2019, but has served in music ministry for more than 25 years.
Now, he and his three children sing Masses together in St. Louis Bertrand’s professional choir and are occasionally joined by his wife for special concerts, he said.
Music “was always a big part of what we did as a family,” said their eldest child, Christina Mueller, 21.
Some of her earliest childhood memories are of playing in the back of churches, hiding in confessionals during her father’s rehearsals, she said.
“It was a cool thing to be at the church so much. It made the church feel like a second home,” she said.
Christina and her brothers, Michael Gabriel, 19, and Raphael, 16, participated in children’s choirs, directed by their father at several parishes and were taught Gregorian chant — a style of unaccompanied sacred music — at a young age by their parents.
But it wasn’t until late 2015 that the family began singing regularly as an ensemble called the “Mueller Family Schola.”
In early 2016, the family spent six months preparing a musical program of chant and polyphony — a style of liturgical music that uses multiple melodies. They sang the program for two Masses at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, as well as for a series of performances in the U.S., Poland and Italy, said Christopher Mueller.
When they returned, they began singing regularly at Masses. Currently, the whole family participates in St. Louis Bertrand’s volunteer choir, and Christopher Mueller and his children — along with another female singer — sing weekly at the parish’s 10:30 a.m. and noon Sunday Masses, he said.
“The role of the choir is really an extension of the congregation — to pray with the people and to offer the kind of beauty that the people would offer if they could.”
— Christopher Mueller, music director
“It just kind of organically happened that way,” said Christopher Mueller.
Some musicians want their kids “to follow in their footsteps and have some kind of career in music,” he said. “That was never my thought. It’s something that’s enjoyable for us to be able to do together, and — certainly in the context of the liturgy — we’re offering a prayer and a service that is very worthwhile.”
His goal as the parish’s music director is to direct the congregation’s prayer through the beauty of chant and polyphony, he said.
“The role of the choir is really an extension of the congregation — to pray with the people and to offer the kind of beauty that the people would offer if they could.
And so for us as singers, we offer this beauty to bring everyone together — to unify the prayer of the congregation and to help direct people’s hearts into that longing for God and that recognition that he’s here,” he said.
Music also has had a unifying effect on the family, said Constanza Mueller.
Singing together has been a “strong glue,” she said.
“In heaven, we are all one human family giving glory to God,” she said, adding that she hopes her family’s schola can be “a sign of that heavenly kingdom.”
She also noted their family isn’t perfect. There were times when a child would get frustrated and wouldn’t want to participate in the family’s rehearsals, she said. When that occurred, they were allowed to step away while the others resumed practicing.
It never took long before the child would say, “Can I do it again?” she said, with a laugh.
As the wife of a church musician, Constanza Mueller said she’s “felt called to pray for church musicians.”
“Musicians don’t always get prayed for,” she said. “I pray for them multiple times a day. I have for many years. I pray a rosary for them every day with a group of friends.”
