Mary Berry

Mary Berry (29 June 1917 – 1 May 2008), also known as Sister Thomas More , was a canoness regular, noted choral conductor and musicologist. She was an authority on the performance of Gregorian chant, founding the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge to revive this ancient style of music.

Life

Early life Berry was born in 1917, the daughter of a chemist who was vice-president of Downing College. As a young woman, she went to the Perse School before spending a year at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where she became a pupil of the conductor and teacher Nadia Boulanger. On returning home, she was awarded a Turle scholarship at Girton College, where she studied with Thurston Dart, but continued to study during her vacations under Boulanger.

An interest in plainchant was encouraged by Berry's supervisor, the Trinity College don Hubert Stanley Middleton. After receiving the university's John Stuart of Rannoch Scholarship in Sacred Music, she took her parents to the Abbey of Solesmes in France, which for decades had been a leader in reviving Gregorian chant.

Berry wrote two introductory books, Plainchant for everyone and Cantors: A collection of Gregorian chants, to encourage people to learn the chant. They are often recommended to beginners in the field. She also wrote for Gramophone and the New Grove Dictionary of Music.

In 2000 Berry was awarded the Papal Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by Pope John Paul II to honor her for her service to the Roman Catholic Church. In the 2002 New Year Honours, she was appointed CBE by Queen Elizabeth II.

Berry died in 2008 and was buried in the Church of St Birinus at Dorchester, Oxfordshire, where her Schola had sung the Paschal Triduum for the previous ten years.