Novice joins Benedictine community
January 21, 2019
In a brief ceremony, Novice Dennis Reyes was
clothed in the Benedictine habit at Saint Meinrad Archabbey, St.
Meinrad, IN, on January 19, 2019. He now begins a year of monastic
formation, including study of the Rule of St. Benedict and
monastic history.
Novice Dennis, 42, is a native of Manila, Philippines.
He earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of
the Philippines and a master's degree in music composition and
theory from the University of Nevada. He expects to receive a
doctor of musical arts in composition from the University of
Illinois in May 2019.
His work has received numerous awards in international
competitions and concerts by juries comprised of experts in the
field. His most recent achievement is winning the grand prize at
the 6th Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble Composition Competition in
2016, where he bested composers from 18 countries.
He is also one of five composers from around the world to be
invited by the University of London's School of Oriental and
African Studies to write a new electroacoustic piece for its annual
Composer's Conference and Festival.
He also participated in the International Electroacoustic Music
Festival hosted by the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. Reyes
was the only composer of Asian descent and one of two composers
based in the United States to receive that year's honor.
Reyes received the President's Research in Diversity Travel
Award from the University of Illinois, an award bestowed by the
university president to 15 high-performing faculty and graduate
students across the three campuses of the university conducting
research in their respective fields.
Most recently, his home parish was St. John's Catholic Newman
Center in Champaign, IL.
As a novice, he takes a year off from formal studies and trades.
The novitiate is a time of prayer and learning intended to help a
novice discern his vocation as a monk. At the end of this year, a
novice may be permitted to profess temporary vows of obedience,
fidelity to the monastic way of life and stability in the community
of Saint Meinrad.
