The Männerstimmen Basel Men's Choir from Basel, Switzerland is an international award winning men's choir touring the United States this summer.
"(We) started in New York ten days ago we had concerts in Jamestown and in State College," said choir director Oliver Rudin. "Chicago is now our highlight, last city of this tour. The choir loves Chicago especially."
They are one of several critically acclaimed performance groups providing a bit of respite for local music lovers as part of the Rush Hour Concert series.
"It's helping people to experience this type of music in a format that is easy for them to access," said Rush Hour Concerts executive director Kelly Jocius. "So whether they are coming at the end of a long work day or just coming from home, they can come to the concert and have some refreshments, mingle with other concert goers, meet the artists, enjoy the concert and still be home by six thirty seven o'clock."
Every Tuesday evening, St. James Cathedral opens its doors to host the concerts, which showcase a range of classical styles.
"It's a very varied program," Jocius said. "We had a percussion ensemble with string quartets, brass quintets and a men's choir from Switzerland today so bringing all this kind of music to people who think of just classical music think of string quintets something like that exposing them to different kinds of music a lot of them younger artists as well."
Roughly 500 people pack the church each week. And the free concerts never seem to disappoint.
