Christmas and inspirational music will be center stage this Sunday as the Fox Valley Festival Chorus performs beginning at 3 p.m. at St. Mark Lutheran Church at 27 S. Edgelawn Drive in Aurora.
Tickets for the concert are $15 and can be purchased from any member of the chorus. The group’s website notes there will be limited availability of tickets at the door.
The longtime local chorus will present “Angel Anthems of Peace,” a roughly 15-song, 90-minute concert that will feature over 60 singers as well as a brass quintet that plays exclusively with the chorus.
The Fox Valley Festival Chorus started preparing for the concert in September and continues to meet once a week in an effort to fulfill its mission of bringing culture to the community, officials with the group said.
Mary Beth McCarthy, of Naperville, said she is currently in her 25th year serving as conductor with the group and that a special holiday program has been curated by her and the choir this year, based on their recent tour experiences.
“We are the Fox Valley Festival Chorus, one of the oldest choruses in Chicagoland and have been in existence 75 years and are celebrating our anniversary,” she said. “In order to celebrate properly we went on a concert tour. We have performed all over the world including at the Vatican and Carnegie Hall, but this tour was to France. We sang in many cathedrals in Paris, but one of the things we did was perform at Normandy at the cemetery where we did a recital.”
McCarthy said the group also performed at St. Mary’s Church in Dumont, New Jersey, but that the catalyst for this year’s holiday show was the appearance in France.
“When we came back, I decided we do a concert ‘Angel Anthems of Peace,’ including angel songs, songs of peace and also St. Nicholas, of course, for the holiday,” she said. “The concert is an extension of that experience in Normandy.”
The show will also be supported through visual art as the group has invited artist Joanne Koenig-Macko.
According to the chorus’ website, “Joanne’s celestial painting ‘Light of the Universe’ was displayed at the United Nations during a world peace summit.”
“Her ‘World Peace Angel’ print has been presented to the White House and to many dignitaries around the world,” the website says.
McCarthy said the artist will be very much a part of the program and that audience members will have the chance to meet her after the concert and perhaps obtain copies of her work.
The artist “is going to collaborate in concert with us,” McCarthy said. “I will interview her during the concert and afterwards audience members can join us for a reception where they can meet chorus members. There will also be holiday treats and a viewing of Joanne’s inspirational painting and people can speak with her and order personalized lithographs.”
McCarthy said she knows the Fox Valley Festival Chorus concert has become a staple of the holiday season and that many continue to put it on their must-do holiday list.
“We usually get 250 to 300 people, and for a lot of them this is a box they have to check,” she said. “I had a woman run into me in the grocery store that I never met. She said, ‘Hi! We’re just so excited to get to come to your Christmas musical again.’ She said they love the concert so much, and that she brings her friends and family every year.”
For more information on the concert, go to www.foxvalleyfc.org/holiday-2025-concert.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
