For the first time in their history, the Loyola Marymount University Choruses will tour Italy, including an invitation to sing a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on June 19, 2010.
“There are few greater honors for Catholic university choruses than to be invited to sing at the Vatican,” said Barbara Busse, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts. The choirs led by Mary Braden will tour Italy from June 12-21. In addition to the Vatican appearance, the LMU students will perform in Rome, Venice and the region of Tuscany.
Venues for some of the concerts are still being finalized but a gala concert in Rome has been scheduled for the Basilica Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.
The LMU choruses – the Consort Singers, Women’s Chorus and Concert Choir – kick off the tour with concerts in Venice and Montecatini. Several high school choirs, including singers from Loyola High School in Los Angeles, St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, and Monte Vista Christian School in central California will join LMU Choruses for the Mass at St. Peter’s and the final gala concert in Rome. This combined choir will total nearly 200 singers.
Music for the Mass will include motets by Palestrina, Viadana, Duruflé and Tschesnokov. Sunday’s gala concert will feature the individual choirs and a finale with all the choirs singing a variety of sacred and secular works. The LMU Choruses’ program will include Morten Lauridsen’s Nocturnes, Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Lovesongs, the Scarlatti Salve Regina and Haydn Te Deum.
This travel and performance opportunity has been funded in part through the generosity of the Adams-Mastrovich Family Foundation Choral Endowment.