CROATIAN MIXED QUIRE LEAVES FOR AMERICAN AND CANADIAN TOUR

ZAGREB, Nov 1 (Hina) - Zagreb's mixed quire "Lira" leaves on November 2 for a two-week tour across the United States and Canada, where it is to perform series of concerts at the Croatian and Jewish centres, as well as in Catholic churches and synagogues. "Lira" has been performing music of Croatian and Jewish composers for 45 years. Its first guest performance in the United States was in 1988, in the occasion of the 50th anniversary of "Crystal Night". Ten years later, on its second American tour, the quire will perform to remind of the beginning of the Nazi prosecution of Jews. The concert is to be held on November 11 in Washington Hebrew Congregation, in mutual organisation of Croatian and Israeli embassies. The quire, with its conductor Tomislav Uhlik, will perform in New York, Washington, Cleveland and Toronto. The New York concert will be held at the UN Dag Hammarskjold auditorium, the Saint Cyril, Method and Raphael Catholic church at the Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, 10th Avenue, and at the biggest synagogue in the world, Temple Emanuel. The quire will participate in the Holocaust victims commemoration at the Holocaust Museum, in Washington. In Cleveland the quire will perform at the Croatian St. Paul Church, and at a synagogue. The Toronto Concert will be held for the Croatian emigrants. The quire's tour is sponsored by the Croatian ministries of Culture and Return and Immigration, as well as several economic and tourist firms from Croatia. (hina) it/jn