Fox Valley Festival Chorus is headed to France.
The 45-member chorus with a brass quintet performed “A France Preview Concert” Sunday, May 4 at Wesley United Methodist Church in Aurora. Approximately 45 members of the Aurora-based chorus and the brass will perform a concert tour of France June 19-28.
Sunday’s hour-long concert featured 12 sacred choral works led by Mary Beth McCarthy of Naperville, chorus conductor and artistic director and director of instrumental music at Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora. Music ranged from “Ave, Maria” by C. Saint-Saens” to “Let there be Peace on Earth” by S. Miller and J. Jackson. The brass quintet comprised Jay Inouye, French horn; Mark Nepil, trombone; and Mark Running and Gene Arnold, trumpeters. Piano/organ accompanist was Eleanor Strong.
The group’s venues will include Paris, Normandy, Chartres, and Tours. McCarthy said, “We have been privileged to sing at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and Basilica, San Marco in Venice and now are eagerly looking forward to sharing our music in the magnificent cathedrals of France including Notre Dame Cathedral, Chartres, La Madeleine and Normandy where a member of the brass will perform at a wreath-laying ceremony. The ensemble will be the first to perform at Notre Dame since its renovation from a fire.”
The ensemble’s spring concert will be “On the Red Carpet,” at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 8, at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 27 S. Edgelawn Drive in Aurora. Tickets are $15. The event will feature music from movie musicals including “My Fair Lady,” “Wicked,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “West Side Story,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Oliver,” and “Top Hat.”
For more information visit www.foxvalleyfc.org.
—Al Benson