The year 1977 saw the Choir setting foot for the first time abroad. This feat, besides being the Choir’s first of its kind, was also the first time that a Choir hailing from Gozo performed abroad.
The Choir was then accompanying the La Stella Band for a tour in Italy and Switzerland, and had the occasion to sing in two of Italy’s most magnificent churches, San Giovanni Laterano in Rome and at the impressive Duomo di Milano.
The Choir sang during a High Mass in the Milanese Cathedral commemorating the 400th Anniversary of its Consecration , celebrated by two cardinals and a number of bishops on the 13th August 1977. It also sang in another High Mass on St. Mary’s Feast Day on the 15th August at the San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, the Cathedral of Rome with which St. George’s Basilica of Victoria, Gozo is affiliated. During this tour the Choir also visited Como (Italy) and Lugano (Switzerland). During this choral tour, the Choir was under the direction of Can. Joseph Gauci, the founder of the Choir and its first musical director.
This tour, merely two years after the Choir’s formation served to inject a morale boost to the Choir and it instilled courage in its members to face future challenges with more determination. It was the prelude to further choral tours which were to enrichen the Choir’s history.
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