Most Current (January 2022): Over the decades, we have flourished in different physical locations as well as several different educational, clinical and corporate structures. As the needs of the profession, the organization, the School of Music-Thanatology, the faculty and students repeatedly and exponentially expanded and grew, or changed and shifted, we made important moves for expansion and sustainability. We relocated to Mount Angel, Oregon in October of 2002, refiled articles of incorporation in 2003, and have been able to expand the program in many ways. Please read the four brief sections below for a quick overview.

Past Encapsulation of History (1973 to 2002): The nineteen pioneering years in Denver, Colorado included the original efforts at Ars Antiqua, a center for medieval musicology, followed by an undergraduate program at Regis College (later called Regis University), and finally a master’s degree program in pastoral theology and pastoral care at St. Thomas Theological Seminary. In 1992, in response to a corporate hospital invitation, Therese Schroeder-Sheker decided to relocate the Chalice of Repose Project® and the School of Music-Thanatology to Missoula, Montana, a small university town in the American Northwest near the Canadian border. There, Chalice work shifted from the contained and protected world of seminary life and seminary academia into the bustling and chaotic heart of corporate medicine.

While in Missoula, Chalice of Repose Project® was located in two different buildings over the course of a decade. The period from 1992 to 2002 included a fruitful alliance with St. Patrick Hospital, (founded by the Sisters of Providence), and four of the long-term geriatric care facilities of The Goodman Group/Sage Corporation. We also served a local hospice, and peripherally, the local Community Hospital, and attended patients in hospitals and hospices in both Helena and Hamilton, Montana.

(2002 to 2021) In October of 2002, we relocated to Oregon, and were able to expand the mission-related clinical, pedagogical and publishing work in order to serve in new and essential ways. We re-incorporated in 2003, developed new platforms and curricula, and in the Fall of 2004, began receiving applications for new online courses that would matriculate in mid-January 2005. Since 2005, we have offered two adult-education certificate-bearing graduate level programs online:  Contemplative Musicianship® and Music-Thanatology®. During the previous nineteen years (2002 to 2021) we have been able to make the work available nationally and internationally and also publish a good deal of new material available in print, broadcast, documentary and podcast systems. During that time, we have developed additional courses and events for students and graduates, and also offered specific courses through other institutes and universities, including Duke University and The Catholic University of America. However, the Chalice of Repose Project® has always remained an independent clinical, educational, and publishing institute. Though grateful to all, and indebted to many, the Chalice of Repose Project® is not part of any single hospital nor a hospital system, a university or college department, nor is it a part of a church. We do enter into corporate affiliate contracts with hospitals to implement and mentor clinical internships and field placements, and those affiliations are of limited duration. We are value-centered yet remain an independent institute.

Rolling Admissions: Gradually, the Chalice of Repose Project® completed twenty-three large and small separate cohorts of online classes. The student profile is and remains national, international, and spiritually diverse. For the past seven years however, from 2014 to the present, 2021, the enrollment process is available on a rolling admissions basis, (RA) rather than large cohorts.  This means that an individual may apply at their own time frame, rather than waiting for a new year and new cohort. It is our intention to retain the rolling admission format rather than return to cohorts.

The Opportunity to Learn about Us: The work of music-thanatology has been imitated, at times, by efforts to simply bring harps and harpists or musicians into hospital settings under the rubric of palliative care. We invite you to discover more about the Chalice of Repose Project® and the rigor of our work. Being the first of its kind, the Chalice of Repose Project® is the premiere music-thanatology organization in the world. Our formal associates are leaders in the field, with maximal clinical, pedagogical, and publishing experience.

Verification Service: The Chalice of Repose Project® is the only organization able to verify the music-thanatology education of our own past or present associates. We advocate the value of formal background fact-checking because there is erroneous information circulating through the internet, and we have discovered that some individuals who have never applied to or attended our programs have misrepresented themselves to hospitals or hospices as having graduated from or completed our programs. If you would like to verify that an individual enrolled in and/or successfully completed any of our courses, at any time, and in any location, from 1987 to the present, please contact the Registrar by writing infoATchaliceofreposeDOTorg. Our commitment is to continue grounding the field in the world with integrity, artistry, spirit, and substance, and in so doing, we bring the palliative and pastoral work to hospitals, medical settings, and communities throughout the world.