Japanese children’s choir to perform at Mount Mary July 22

The award-winning all-girls choir from Notre Dame Academy of Kyoto, Japan, will perform a free concert at Mount Mary University’s Helfaer Hall at 7 p.m. Monday, July 22.

The choir will perform modern and Japanese folk and religious songs under the direction of Toru Terashita, music director of Notre Dame Elementary School of Kyoto. The school is sponsored by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, as is Mount Mary University. The group’s most recent Milwaukee performance took place in 2014.

The choir, comprised of elementary and junior high girls, will perform on campus as part of a five-day visit to the area. The group will stay at the Mount Mary campus, hold private performances for select community groups and tour Milwaukee.

A second performance opportunity, at 3 p.m. Thursday, July 25, will be open to the public. It will be held in the atrium of the Milwaukee Art Museum. The performance is free with museum admission.

“We welcome this group to our campus and our community, both for the music and for the partnership this group represents,” said Christine Pharr, Ph.D., president of Mount Mary. “The international reach of the School Sisters of Notre Dame is evident when we, as sister organizations, have an opportunity to come together and appreciate the impact that we share on a global scale.”

The group performs music intended to “teach children the fun, wonders and greatness of music and to foster the heart of prayer to God through music,“ Terashita said. Many of the songs are his own composition, while others are Western classics transcribed into Japanese. To learn more about this group, view this video of their performance from 2014. For more information about the Notre Dame of Kyoto’s concert at Mount Mary or to order free tickets, contact Amy Knox at knoxa@mtmary.edu, (414) 930-3563 or visit Eventbrite.