DETROIT — Are you ready for an Ecclesiastical encore?

The Sistine Chapel Choir is set to make its return to the Motor City on July 11 as part of an eight-city tour of the United States, following the choir’s 2017 three-stop tour.

Tickets for the July 11 show at the Detroit Opera House will be available at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 13 on the Michigan Opera Theatre’s website: http://www.michiganopera.org/events/sistinechapelchoir/.

According to the Opera Theatre’s website, ticket prices will range from $54-$179, but Kerry Kurowski, Vice President of Sales for Northville-based Corporate Travel Services said group discounts are available.

Groups of 20-49 may purchase tickets at a 15-percent discount, and groups of 50 or more can purchase at a 30-percent discount. Groups can call Corporate Travel, (313) 565-8888, to arrange securing the group rate.

“The goal for the group discount is so we could have fellowship in large numbers,” Kurowski told The Michigan Catholic. “So if the men’s and women’s parish group wanted to put together a group of 22 people to go together, we’d be able to accommodate them.”

A Michigan Opera Theater – Detroit Opera House Facebook event states the public sale will begin April 13, but a presale will take place Thursday, April 12 at 10 a.m.

“The presale is for the Detroit Opera House and the community at large that have bought tickets through Tickemaster in the past,” Kurowski said. “So if you’re part of the Tickemaster or Opera House community, you will receive an email on Thursday morning where you can purchase tickets before the general public.”

Those who sign up with Ticketmaster will receive an email with a link. The link will invite the recipients to enter in the offer code “mother” so they can purchase tickets before they’re available to the general public.

The Michigan Catholic will host a Sistine Chapel concert giveaway where subscribers will have the chance to win a pair of tickets.

All current subscribers are automatically entered into the contest, and those who subscribe or renew their subscription between now and June 15 will have the chance to win a pair of tickets.

Kurowski said last year’s performance at the 2,600-seat opera house sold out within a month.

“We don’t expect tickets to be available for long; last year we had two performances. This time we will only have one,” Kurowski.
Just like last year, Kurowski expects a Detroit-area ensemble choir will accompany the Pope’s choir for the one-night only performance. But the Detroit connection won’t stop there.

“Joe Balistreri, director of music ministry from the Archdiocese of Detroit and conductor of the archdiocesan choir, will be the director for the entire performance; which is very exciting,” Kurowski said. “It’s important for the community to know what a gift we have in Joe. He made such an impression on Maestro Msgr. Massimo Palombella (director of the Sistine Chapel Choir), that the Maestro personally requested to have Joe conduct for the entire tour. They have a beautiful relationship.”

With performances scheduled at The Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis on Monday, July 9 and the James L. Knight Center in Miami on Friday, July 13, the choir will arrive in Detroit on late Tuesday, July 10 and depart early in the morning on Thursday, July 12.

Kurowski said Detroiters shouldn’t expect to see the choir outside of the Wednesday night performance at the Opera House. Last year, the choir put on a free show at Ste. Anne de Detroit and sung at Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Before 2017, the Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina performed in Detroit, Washington, D.C. and New York City in what was then described as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

Now coming back one year later, Kurowski said the choir’s decision to return to the United States, and more specifically, Detroit, is a testament to the hospitality and authentic love the city showed for the Pope’s choir during their 2017 visit.

“Detroit is the number one reason they chose to come back to the United States,” Kurowski said. “When they made the decision to travel, they chose a Detroit-based company. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but they didn’t expect to see a community of love that was excited to see them. It took them by surprise.

“So almost immediately when they went back to Rome, it went all the way up the Holy Father how they were received in Detroit,” Kurowski continued. “This is the ultimate of his evangelical preaching, sharing all the glories of the Universal Church and the Sistine Chapel Choir. It’s unprecedented they are doing an eight-city tour. Before that they haven’t traveled to the United States for 30 years. So it’s almost unheard of that they would come back to the United States for two consecutive years. And they chose to come back to Detroit, they asked to come back to sing for Detroit.

For additional information about the tour, visit the Sistine Chapel Choir tour webpage.