musical director and principal composer for Cirque Du Soleil has written a piece for the processional of the standard-bearers for Mass.

"I knew what type of music I wanted," Edgren said. "I gave a list to Cardinal Egan and I asked Harry Connick Jr. to write opening and closing pieces" for the pre-Mass program.

The musical program includes well-known entertainers in addition to choirs and orchestras assembled from throughout the Archdiocese of New York. The choirs include the Harlem Gospel Choir and the West Point Cadet Choir, from the U.S. Military Academy.

Edgren said, "I wanted to stick with the orchestral feel and not make this a parade of stars."

The four-hour program in Yonkers, he said, "will have more of a festive atmosphere" than Yankee Stadium. He said he wanted to "keep it young" and is using alternative rock, Christian rock bands and closing the show with Clarkson. He said that he booked Clarkson as soon as he took the assignment. "I was looking for an artist who was a good role model, a success, with no scandals."

The program will showcase more than two dozen entertainers, many of whom are drawn from the schools and parishes of the Archdiocese of New York.

Comparing these papal entertainment programs with ones he has previously produced, Edgren said, "There's a different setting, a different pope, a different cardinal, but it all works. I base my part of the program -- the pre-Mass events -- on the venue."

He added that the Mass is not his area of responsibility -- and deals with an even higher authority. CD

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