The Saint Angela Choir performed Ferenc Liszt’s “Salve Regina” during the general audience with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, October 23.
The choir of nearly 40 members, led by conductor Gabriella Menus, chose the work on Mary, especially as October is the month of the Virgin Mary, and the Feast of Our Lady of Hungary falls on October 8. The Hungarian chapel in the temple of St. Peter’s Basilica was dedicated to the Lady of Hungary (Magyarok Nagyasszonya / Virgin Mary).
On Thursday evening, the Saint Angela Choir will give an all-night concert at the Church of Il Gesu in downtown Rome, with the support of the Hungarian Embassy in Rome and the Collegium Hungaricum of Rome.
The concert, free of charge for the Italian and Hungarian audiences in Rome, will be the first Hungarian program in preparation for the jubilee Holy Year 2025.
The Saint Angela Choir was founded 15 years ago, in 2009, by former students and teachers of the St. Angela’s Franciscan High School in Budapest. Its repertoire mainly includes European and Hungarian sacred works, but the choir also sings Hungarian secular choral works, especially folk song arrangements.
In the last 15 years, they have performed abroad on several occasions, and have visited a number of Christian communities in the Middle East. The choir has performed in Istanbul, the Egyptian Coptic communities in Cairo and Alexandria, twice in Jordan, and four times in the Holy Land, according to the website of the Collegium Hungaricum of Rome.
Via MTI, Culture.hu; Featured image: Pixabay