Meet the Faculty
We are pleased to welcome the following faculty members to the 2026 CLEF Summer Program! Our faculty includes highly skilled musicians, ensemble directors, composers, and liturgists who are passionate about helping ensemble musicians improve their skills to lead people to full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgy.
Katie Barton
Instrumental & Vocal Ensemble Voice, Keyboard
Ensemble Faculty
Katie Barton
Instrumental & Vocal Ensemble
Voice, Keyboard
Katie Barton is the Director of Sacred Music at St. Thomas Parish in Ft. Thomas, Kentucky where she conducts the Adult Choir, Liturgical Ensemble, Resurrection Choir, and Schola. She has previously served as the Director of Music at Holy Spirit Parish in Newport, Kentucky; St. Timothy Parish in Union, Kentucky; and St. Mary Parish – Hyde Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a total of 30 years in music ministry.
Katie is also the Director of Choral Activities at Northern Kentucky University where she conducts three choirs and teaches choral music education classes including conducting and ensemble accompanying. She is also professor of applied organ. Her choral composition, “Victimae Paschali Laudes,” a setting of the Easter sequence, is published with GIA publications. She is a member of the American Guild of Organists, American Choral Directors Association, and the National Association for Music Education.
J.T. Brown
Instrumental Ensemble
Bass Guitar
J.T. Brown is a highly respected bassist whose career spans decades of studio recording and live performance across the United States.
He has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists and composers, including many well-known voices in Catholic liturgical music. His work reflects a deep musical versatility and a collaborative approach that supports singers, ensembles, and composers alike.
Dion Clay
Instrumental Ensemble
Percussion
Dion began his professional music career as a drummer in Washington, D.C. and has recorded with Grammy artists and many other notable gospel artists. He was first introduced to the liturgical music world by the late great Leon Roberts, and has since created beautiful prayerful music with many Catholic artists. He is currently the drummer for the John Angotti Band and works with many other artists for studio recordings and life performances, in addition to mentoring young and upcoming drummers at St. Philip Catholic Church in Franklin, Tennessee.
Jaime Cortez
Instrumental Ensemble
Guitar, Keyboard
Jaime Cortez is a talented and popular composer, arranger, and performer. Born in New York and raised in El Salvador, Jaime has dedicated a portion of his ministry to promoting better Hispanic liturgies and bringing cultures together for worship. His main instrument is guitar, though he is proficient in piano and other string instruments, such as charango, vihuela, and bass guitar.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition from Arizona State University. He was named Pastoral Musician of the Year in 2016 by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM).
Some of Jaime’s best-known songs are “Rain Down,” “Somos el Cuerpo de Cristo/We Are the Body of Christ” (with Bob Hurd) and “Take Up Your Cross.” He has released six solo collections with OCP, and collaborative projects include Gracia y Amor/Grace and Love, a collection with Bob Hurd and Eleazar Cortés and Our Common Home, a project inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, featuring his song “Let Us Sing as We Go.”
Jaime is currently director of liturgy and music at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. He lives in Mesa with his wife Kari. They have three sons who are also very talented musically.
Dr. Norah Duncan IV
Instrumental & Vocal Ensemble
Voice, Keyboard
Dr. Norah Duncan IV is a distinguished musician, educator, and composer whose work has had a lasting impact on liturgical music in the United States and beyond. He served for many years at Wayne State University as Professor of Music, Area Coordinator for Organ Performance, and Department Chair. Dr. Duncan holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ and Church Music from the University of Michigan.
He has served for more than 26 years as Music Director for the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, planning and directing music for major archdiocesan liturgies. He was also Director of Music for Pope John Paul II’s historic 1987 visit to Detroit.
A respected composer, his works are published by GIA Publications and are widely used in parish liturgy, including the Unity Mass. He contributed to the Lead Me, Guide Me Hymnal, Second Edition, and founded the Gregorian Institute of Detroit in collaboration with the Benedictine monks of Solesmes, France.
Lynné Gray
Instrumental & Vocal Ensemble
Voice, Keyboard
Lynné is a respected liturgist, arranger, director, and composer. She holds a bachelor’s degree and Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the Catholic University of America, with additional voice and organ training. A respected vocal coach and accompanist, she shares her love of voice in ministry throughout the United States. As a liturgist and worship leader, she has served on the Archdiocese of Washington Liturgical Music Committee and given numerous workshops. She is currently the Director of the Archdiocesan Gospel Mass Choir. Lynné was blessed in 2008 to direct the Gospel Mass Choir during the Mass for Pope Benedict XVI.
Sarah Hart
Instrumental & Vocal Ensemble
Voice, Flute
Sarah Hart is one of the leading figures in contemporary Catholic music today, her songs of faith having touched the lives of thousands. Originally from Lancaster, Ohio, she holds a degree in music from The Ohio State University. Now based in Nashville, Tennessee she spends much of her time on the road – juggling a busy songwriting, recording, concert and event schedule. She is also an avid writer, having published multiple retreat books, along with a musical based on the life of Saint Bernadette. She currently lives in Nashville with her husband and two daughters.
Spirituality & Liturgy Faculty
Msgr. Ray East
Spirituality
Msgr. Raymond G. East is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington and pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Anacostia. A nationally known speaker and evangelist, he brings decades of pastoral experience serving diverse parish communities and working to strengthen faith, worship, and evangelization.
Born in New Jersey and raised in San Diego, Msgr. East grew up in a family shaped by a rich missionary and ecumenical heritage. He attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1981.
Msgr. East has spent over forty years serving Black Catholic communities in Washington, D.C., including six years as Director of the Office of Black Catholics and as archdiocesan evangelist. He has worked extensively with African American and African diaspora communities and served as General Chairman of the Lead Me, Guide Me Hymnal, Second Edition.
Mary Dumm, D. Min
Liturgy
CLEF Director
Dr. Mary Dumm, D.Min. is the pastoral associate at St. Blase Church in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Additionally, she teaches at Siena Heights University and SS Cyril and Methodius Seminary. Her areas of study include scripture, liturgy, and sacrament. Also, Mary has enjoyed participating in ventures with LTP, NPM, and other organizations that serve the people of God and their worship. When she’s not locked to her computer or in pre-Covid life running around the country giving workshops, she can be found with a book in her hand, cross-stitch in her lap, or diligently (albeit unsuccessfully) learning chord shapes.
Additional Faculty
Bobby Fisher
Clinic Day & Private Coaching Faculty
Guitar, Keyboard, Mandolin, Ukulele
Summer Program Director, CLEF Director
Bobby Fisher is a world-renowned musician, music producer, recording artist, composer, and clinician. He has served a number of years as program director for the NPM Guitar Schools, Guitar and Ensemble Institutes, the Bobby Fisher Ensemble Formation Program (BFEFP), and the CLEF Summer Program. He recently retired after 25 years as the music director of St. Agnes Parish in Ft. Wright, KY.
For the past five years, he has been the music director of the Share the Journey (A Concert for Compassion) series (https://shareinthehope.com). Bobby has recorded and produced a number of his own recordings and has worked as producer and guest musician on countless others. With his daughter, Serenity, and her husband, Michael G. Ronstadt, he currently records and performs with Serenity Fisher and the Cardboard Hearts.
Bobby has recorded and published a number of music collections for OCP, GIA, Franciscan Media, and Heart to Heart Ministries and is the author of “The Pastoral Guitarist,” a guitar instructional book, and “The Liturgical Guitarist,” an instructional video. As a children’s recording artist, Bobby is best known for “Hymns and Hers for Happy Hearts,” a collection of fun and creative music for young and old children. His best-selling collections include Play Before God, Guitar Prayer, Catholic Classics Vol. III, If We Dare to Hope, and Go Out and Tell. Bobby lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife and family.
Ken Gilman, PhD
Clinic Day & Private Coaching Faculty
Obbligato, Mandolin, Violin & More
CLEF Director
Ken served for 17 years as music director at St. Michael & All Angels in Albuquerque. He continues to play in his preferred spot on the back row at St. Michael and at St. Charles Borromeo, usually as an obbligato person on mandolin, octave viola, tenor, or bass mandolin. Irish banjo may even have snuck in a time or two. In Albuquerque the past 20 years, he previously worked and played in Celtic bands in both New England (Maine) and Europe (Belgium).
His special passion is creating balance in the ensemble for instruments and voices. In music selection and arrangement, he loves to explore, in addition to lyric content, how the timbre, rhythmic, and melodic characteristics of the music support the flow of the liturgy. Another area of interest for Ken is how we inhabit the continuum of the political to the pastoral, and how the interplay of beliefs and personality combine with the practice of authority and leadership to affect ensemble formation at all levels of the community, from staff to choir/ensemble to assembly. As a semi-retired psychologist and mediator, he does supervision and training work primarily with first responders around teamwork, communication, burnout, and self-care.
Steve Petrunak
Clinic Day & Private Coaching Faculty
Guitar
CLEF Director
Steve Petrunak served in music ministry at St. Blase Parish in Sterling Heights, Michigan, for more than 40 years. He is a composer, recording artist, author, editor, and clinician. Steve was the President/CEO of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians for nearly four years and served two terms as a member of the NPM Board of Directors. He has recorded and produced multiple recordings. He has written the book with his pastor Fr. Randy Phillips entitled “Managing Music Ministry” and a three-volume liturgical guitar methodology entitled “Beyond Strumming,” all with GIA Publications. Steve has also recorded more than 1,000 guitar-based instrumental recordings distributed across multiple streaming and download platforms (including Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, and Apple Music). Steve lives in North Carolina with his wife, Ruth.
Stan Stepnowski
Clinic Day Faculty
Guitar, Mandolin
Stan has been a liturgical musician for more than 30 years and currently plays guitar, mandolin, and bass at St. John the Evangelist church in Little Canada, Minnesota in the contemporary ensemble alongside his wife and two sons.
Peter Maher
Clinic Day Faculty
Peter Maher earned a bachelor’s degree from the Catholic University of America in 1978. He is currently enjoying retirement after a varied career, including stints as an executive chef, owner-operator of a highly successful computer operations company, and 16 years with the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. Peter began his career as an ensemble musician in 1969 when Sister Maureen, who knew he played guitar, asked him to help form the first folk group in the parish. Aside from a few breaks for life and jobs along the way, he has been an ensemble musician since that time.
Ready to be inspired by these faculty members and expand your ensemble skills? Register now to join us for the CLEF Summer Program, July 26-31, 2026 in Milford, Ohio.