Detroit — When Matt Kush sat down at a piano at Cobo Center July 12, with an electronic device on the music rack, instead of sheet music, Louis Canter wondered what was going on.

“I never saw anything like that before. I said, ‘Where’s his music?’” said Canter, coordinator of music ministry for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

But instead of the usual stack of sheet music, Kush had all the music he would be playing scanned onto his iPad, a small computer device manufactured by Apple.

And when it came time to turn a page, all it took was a wave of his hand across the screen.

Since becoming director of music and worship at St. Kieran Parish in Shelby Township back in February, Kush has shown himself a pioneer in applying the latest technology to the job.

“I think it’s phenomenal. It’s groundbreaking. It’s the wave of the future,” Canter continued, adding that many others attending the July 12-16 National Association of Pastoral Musicians convention at Cobo were also intrigued by Kush’s use of his iPad. “There were a lot of people around that piano when he was playing ambient music,” he said.

Kush, 25, has been playing the organ in churches since the eight grade, so he knows how things used to be done by everybody — and still are done by most pastoral musicians.

“I’d like to see more and more things downloadable by the users,” he said. “I don’t want to have to lug around stacks of books like when I was 14.”

The innovative uses of technology Kush has introduced not only make his own life easier, but offer advantages to those who serve as cantors or choir members at St. Kieran. They can go on Kush’s Internet site, and not only find out what music they will be doing, but in many cases actually listen to it.

And not just listen to the music as it will sound when a choir performs it, but hear their individual part. So basses can hear the bass part, altos the alto part, and so forth.

Amy Smellie, a member of St. Kiern’s adult choir and Resurrection choir, said, “Matt is very, very forward-looking with where he’s taking us.”

Smellie, who also is a cantor, said, “Having the stuff available on the Internet is huge.”

And referring to a recent Detroit Free Press story about the challenge the Catholic Church faces in retaining young people, she said she thought it was good to have “a younger person with younger ideas” as the parish music director.

Carol Carabelli, a cantor in the parish’s contemporary group, which sings at the Saturday vigil Mass, said she loves how Kush’s website allows cantors to schedule themselves and learn what music will be used.

“He has recorded himself singing and playing,” Carabelli said. “It’s all very user-friendly and very, very helpful. I love it.”

But there is a lot more to Kush than just being a tech wizard, in her view.

He’s a wonderful music director, a talented musician and composer, and just a wonderful person,” Carabelli added.

Smellie said she was impressed with Kush the first time she heard him play:. “I thought to myself, ‘He plays happy music! What a wonderful thing to be in church and be happy!”

Kush was a young teenager at Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Lincoln Park when he began using his musical talents to help fellow parishioners worship. He went on to earn a degree in music from Wayne State University in Detroit.

He said his next goal is to try to use the Internet to promote greater awareness of his own liturgical music compositions among other pastoral musicians.