You might not expect to find post civil war cowboys inside a chapel in Kenmore. But there they were, plodding haggardly along a snowy mountain trail. As they do, a crescendo of hauntingly sublime music drifts along with them. The images of cowboys projected on a screen transcends to a celestial experience when the rich sound of oboes and flutes joins in.

Suddenly the orchestra stops. The screen goes blank. The conductor calls out. “Woodwinds! Strings! Should we come off on the second beat?”

The composer in the sound room converses with the conductor via TV screen. It’s agreed. They’ll do it over. Quiet, please. Then everything happens just as before. The screen light ups, the snowy scene begins, the orchestra breaks into a melodious sound. The composer and conductor carefully calibrate each musical note to the images on the screen.

This soundtrack production for the upcoming movie “Seraphim Falls” took place this month at Bastyr University’s chapel in Kenmore. The 140-foot-long chapel has become the ideal recording studio for Hollywood movie soundtracks.

“Acoustically, the chapel stands out,” explained Pamela Vaughn, Bastyr’s director of extended education and conferences. “The chapel’s overall architectural structure lends itself to being the perfect place for recording music. The high ceiling allows reverberation as the music moves around, up and down, back and forth. And the ceiling’s wooden crossbeams add absorption. The microphones are located in the spot that’s called the ‘sweet sound,’ which is 16 feet in the air. It’s all very strategic.”

“Seraphim Falls,” a Hollywood western starring Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson, will be released sometime in the future. But it’s not the only production company that found its way to Bastyr. Scary Movie 4; Lucky Number Slevin; Akeelah and the Bee; Wedding Crashers; Bee Season; and Brokeback Mountain (which won an Oscar for best original film score) are among many movie soundtracks recorded at the chapel. “And Dave Matthews did his album ‘Some Devil’ here,” Vaughn added, noting the university also sponsors concerts in the chapel around the holidays. “We have an annual Celtic concert the first Saturday of December with Irish dancers and fiddlers. It packs the chapel and proceeds go to student scholarships.”

The European-style chapel features awe-inspiring aspects other than acoustic magnificence. “Its European artwork and craftsmanship were all done by hand,” Vaughn noted.

Harry Clarke Studios of Dublin, Ireland created the 36 handcrafted stained glass windows that line the chapel’s walls. They alone hold a reverence of glory. Intricate designs of ruby red, cobalt blue, emerald green, mauve and deep purple shimmer in kaleidoscopic colors of brilliant light.

“When the stained glass windows were made in the 50s, they painted on top of the stained glass and fired it,” said Vaughn. “It’s art on glass. It’s very unique and beautiful.”

The beauty of the stained glass in combination with terrazzo floors, oak paneled walls, French Rouge Antique marble columns and the 65-foot long mosaic panel depicting “Stations of the Cross” reveal a sense of God throughout the sanctuary. The huge copper-sheathed entrance doors hint that something sacred lies beyond.

Built in 1958, the chapel originally served as the core of the Seminary of St. Thomas, a college where men prepared for the priesthood. “That’s why the chapel is so ornate, because it’s where the men were ordained as priests,” Vaughn explained. “Thomas Connolly, archbishop of Seattle, commissioned the chapel’s design. He wanted it to be an Italian Renaissance replica of the chapel in Rome where he said his first mass. Archbishop Connolly built tons of schools and churches during his reign.”

By the 1970s men were feeling less inclined to enter the priesthood. With enrollment dwindling, the seminary closed in 1978. The campus served as a conference center and drug and alcohol rehab center until 1996. That year, Bastyr University moved to the property and purchased the land and buildings from the Seattle Catholic Archdiocese in 2005.

The public is welcome to visit. “Although the university is private property, the chapel and herb garden are open to the public when not in use.” Vaughn said.

For further information, go to www.bastyr.edu.