A year that counts

Dear Friends,

as another academic year draws to a close, we do what humans have always done: we count.

Yet numbers are curious things. The big ones inspire us, motivate us, tell us something is working and worth doing more of.

This year, one number speaks first: a 100% increase in applications for our entrance examinations. Twice as many young musicians want to begin their journey with us as last year, a sign that our University continues to grow as a place where talent is welcomed and inspired.

And beyond our classrooms, our educational project Let's Sing with the Pope has travelled farther than we could have imagined, reaching an extraordinary 7,227,000 views in just one year and finding its way into homes, parishes, schools, and hearts across the world.

And yet the final balance is never read in millions alone. Behind every great number stands a one. A beginning. The singular act of courage or conviction that, without fanfare, sets everything else in motion.

In music we know this well. Unison: all voices on one note. We count only so that, at the right moment, we may transcend counting entirely and many voices become one.

This year, we are grateful for both.

Let’s Sing with the Pope comments

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CAPPELLA DEL PIMS

We are grateful to have finalized a second year of collaboration between the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and the Fabbrica di San Pietro, a partnership that began in October 2024. Following a successful second year, our students will continue to animate the 9:00 a.m. Sunday parish Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, offering their musical contribution to the liturgy also in 2026/2027. We are equally grateful for the new opportunities our students embraced this year: singing during the pilgrimage of the Papal Foundation, and performing at the America Week concert hosted here at PIMS for the first time. We look with confidence to the continuation of these collaborations, certain of their value for the our academic community.

And yet, the story does not end here.

Among this beautiful plurality of events, one project is quietly taking shape, one that will count for years to come. Stay with us.