Sept. 29, 2004

Contact Dan Johnson-Wilmot at (608)-796-3761 and dejohnsonwilmot@viterbo.edu

VITERBO AND FSPA TO CELEBRATE 120 YEARS OF MUSIC OCT. 17

LA CROSSE, Wis. -- The Viterbo University Concert Choir, Women’s Choral, 9th Street Singers, and Platinum Addition will come together with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Schola Choir to give a concert in the Maria Angelorum Chapel at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17. The event is free and open to the public.
 
The concert will feature timeless choral music, short biographies of the founders of the music program, and the reading of music faculty names of the last 100 years. The FSPA and Viterbo are celebrating several important anniversaries with the concert -- the 2004-05 academic year marks the 100th anniversary of the music department at Viterbo, 120 years of music making in La Crosse, 100 years as a conservatory and academic program, 60 years as a university major department, and 50 years of baccalaureate National Association of Schools of Music accreditation.
 
The history of the Viterbo music department is closely tied to the history of the FSPA’s commitment to music and fine arts. The FSPA taught instrumental music as early as the 1870’s in La Crosse and established the St. Rose Conservatory of Music in 1904, the direct predecessor of Viterbo’s Preparatory School of Arts. In 1944, the St. Rose College of Music merged with Viterbo College and became the Viterbo Department of Music, which gained full NASM accreditation in 1952.