Musicologist who reinvigorated Jesuit musical tradition dies

WESTON, Mass. – The former director of the Boston College Jesuit Institute whose research helped to revive the Jesuit religious order’s musical tradition has died. Rev. T. Frank Kennedy was 67.

A cousin of Kennedy’s confirmed he died of advanced pancreatic cancer Friday at the Campion Health Center, a Jesuit facility in Weston, Massachusetts.

Kennedy was most recently a visiting fellow at London’s Oxford University where he had been since 2014.

The former director was a musicologist who edited, produced and professionally recorded four baroque operas associated with the early Jesuits. He was a founding member of Boston College’s music department. He served as director of the Jesuit Institute from 2002 to 2014.

Kennedy was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He received his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.