Former chapel is Tucson's newest concert venue

The Catholic Diocese of Tucson consecrated the Benedictine Monastery and chapel in Tucson months after it opened in 1940.

The historic building was rechristened on Oct. 10 by Sergio Mendoza and his cumbia-mambo fusion band Orkesta Mendoza.

Orkesta Mendoza was the first to perform on the stage of La Rosa, Tucson’s newest and arguably most unique venue, which replaced the historic chapel.

“It feels pretty magical,” Mendoza said days later as he prepared for his second La Rosa appearance with Calexico on Thursday — the first of the popular desert rock band’s three sold-out concerts over the weekend. “Everything about the way they renovated the space and the sound treatment and the acoustics. Everyone was really happy to see that all of the work they put into this place had paid off.”

La Rosa’s grand opening last weekend came more than 18 months after former Hotel Congress music director David Slutes and Phoenix entertainment visionary Charlie Levy teamed up to transform the chapel into a concert venue.

Slutes said the multimillion-dollar renovation included creating a kitchen for an on-site restaurant and adding two bars, one on the patio and the other in the former narthex that includes several small tables and church pews. Other pews are set up around the campus, including inside the hall.

Slutes and Levy left untouched the arches framing the chapel and the dome that once capped the ornate baldacchino that workers painstakingly removed last summer. The Tucson Diocese had removed the religious artifacts from the chapel, including the altar and the holy water fonts.

“You don’t go into a wonderful church like this, such a beautiful building, and change everything,” Slutes said.

Slutes said there are plans to add a small bar in the former confessional, where Larizah Plaza and her friend Taylor Guzman had taken selfies Wednesday before UK-based indie pop singer Strawberry Guy took the stage.

“I knew it was a church; I didn’t know it was a venue,” Guzman said. “The ambience is very different. I really like the lights.”

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The stage lights on Oct. 10 crisscrossed over the players, creating something resembling a halo; on Wednesday, the lighting had a purple haze that shrouded fans pressed up against the stage.

There were 550 people at that concert, the second stop on Strawberry Guy’s U.S. string tour that featured a string quartet.

“It’s a real beautiful venue,” the singer told the audience one song into his show. “This is probably one of the most beautiful venues I have ever played.”

Plaza said La Rosa was the perfect setting for an artist like Strawberry Guy, who she and Guzman had discovered from his viral TikTok music videos. But she said she “would feel weird, low key” singing along to more a mainstream artist’s profane lyrics in the former church.

Mendoza said La Rosa reminded him and his bandmates of venues they had played in Europe.

“For me and a lot of the guys in the band, it didn’t feel like Tucson,” he said. “It felt more like a concert hall in Europe, one of those old theaters you play in Italy or France. It had more of that vibe.”

When they added the chairs into the hall for Thursday’s Calexico show, Mendoza, who has played with the band for more than a decade, said, “it really does feel like a church here.”

“Musically and because of its history, it feels like a sacred place,” he said. “That’s the cool part.”

The La Rosa calendar has shows booked into April 2026, including its immersive Halloween At La Rosa dance party on Oct. 31 and the popular Tucson cumbia-rock band XIXA with The Demons of South Tucson on Nov. 26. The venue is at 800 N. Country Club Road.