Corona del Mar High singers take their show on the road in France

Corona del Mar High School choir students are taking their act across the pond.

The school’s Madrigal Singers departed Monday for France to spend 10 days traveling and performing.

According to choral instructor Andrew Ball, most similar opportunities for choirs take place around spring and summer. But with winter typically wide open, Ball decided to see what he and his choir could find.

In March, the music teacher reached out to the Newport Beach Sister City Assn. along with ACFEA Tour Consultants — a company based in Edmonds, Wash., that specializes in arranging tours for performance ensembles — and a personal contact of his in France to coordinate the trip.

Due to previous commitments, not all the choir’s 34 members went to France, but 27 are on the trip, visiting three locations to sing.

They’ll first perform in the Cathédrale Notre Dame de l’Immaculée Conception in Antibes, a city in southern France.

Later, the group will visit Gap, a town in the southern French Alps, to stay with local families and sing for the community.

The students will finish their travels in Paris, where they will sing in a Mass at Notre Dame and perform in Madeleine Church.

The choir raised nearly $22,000 for the trip through donations and ticket sales from its previous performances this school year.

Funds earned from the group’s holiday concert and its caroling season, in which it performed at 15 venues from the last week of November through the weekend before Christmas, provided aid to students who needed help paying for the trip.