Dan Schutte

Dan Schutte was born in 1947 in Neenah, Wisconsin, and is one of the most influential figures in contemporary Catholic liturgical music, best known as a founding member of the St. Louis Jesuits, the composer collective that fundamentally reshaped Catholic hymnody in the decades following the Second Vatican Council. He entered the Society of Jesus and pursued theological and musical studies, developing a compositional voice that blended accessible melody with richly scriptural and theologically grounded texts. The St. Louis Jesuits — Schutte, John Foley, Bob Dufford, Roc O'Connor, and Tim Manion — recorded their landmark album Neither Silver Nor Gold in 1974, which inaugurated a new era of participatory, guitar-accompanied liturgical song in American Catholic worship. Schutte's contributions to this body of work were substantial and enduring. His hymn Here I Am, Lord, with its text drawn from Isaiah 6 and Samuel, became one of the most beloved and widely sung hymns in the English-speaking Catholic world and has been adopted into hymnals across multiple Protestant denominations. After completing his Jesuit formation, Schutte eventually left the Society of Jesus while remaining a committed Catholic composer and liturgical musician. He has continued to compose prolifically, producing Mass settings, psalm settings, and hymns published through OCP (Oregon Catholic Press). He has also taught liturgical composition and served as a resource for parish musicians across the country. Schutte's legacy is his demonstration that liturgical music can be both immediately singable by ordinary congregations and rooted in serious engagement with Scripture and tradition. His work remains a touchstone of the post-conciliar Catholic musical renewal and continues to appear regularly in ecumenical worship.