Mucca Pazza To Perform With All 3,500 Chicago Children's Choir Members In May

By Jon Graef in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 19, 2014 6:00PM

Photo by Antonio Bovino.

Chicago Children's Choir will have a very special guest when its 3,500 members perform May 22 as part of the organization's annual "Paint the Town Red" event at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion: 30-piece punk marching band Mucca Pazza.

The potential for wonderfully unholy cacophony is boundless, needless to say.

As Mucca Pazza mandolinist Gary Kalar said in a news release, the band, who recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, wants to encourage future generations of noisemakers through its participation.

"Encouraging children to make a lot of noise, run around like crazy, and dress nonsensically might seem like an exercise in redundancy," Gary Kalar. "But when it comes to fighting conformity for conformity's sake, a marching band can't be too careful. Mucca Pazza wants to do everything it can to inspire the youth to grow up to be weirdos like us."

The "Paint The Town Red" event is an "annual celebration of arts education," with this year's theme dedicated to "celebrating freedom of individual expression as demonstrated through the power of music."

So having Mucca Pazza participate is absolutely perfect.

The concert, which starts at 11 a.m., is free and open to the public. Also participating is Allison Semmes, who performs as Diana Ross in Motown the Musical, a nationally touring musical.

Last year's "Paint The Town Red" event raised $100,000 to start the Englewood Neighborhood Choir Program.

The Englewood Neighborhood Choir debuted last fall.