Choir returns from Austria

Local singers perform in a cathedral at the Melk Abbey in Austria. Submitted

“How do you put something in words when you're performing in the exact same hall as Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms, and Mozart,” said choir director Christie Lynn Rust. “It’s quite an honor actually.”

The CR Cho­rale was one of only two American choirs invited and travelled the farthest  to the event held in the Vienna City Hall.

“They don’t let just anyone in the building — let alone to perform,” Rust said.

In 2005, Rust brought Del Norte High School’s Madrigal Choir and Women’s Chamber Ensemble to the Vienna event, prompting the organizers to invite her new choir through CR, Rust said.

The choir members, ages 17-80, traveled abroad to perform eight concerts in just six days in Germany and Austria with piano accompaniment by Jill Dovre. Some concerts, like the main event, the Advent Sing, were very formal affairs.

Other performances were more improvised, like an outdoor a cappella concert at the Schönbrunn Palace Christmas Market and an unplanned performance at the collegiate church in Mondsee, Austria, where the “Sound of Music” wedding was filmed.

The choir performed a variety of songs including Christmas carols, complex concert choir pieces, jazz numbers, pop tunes and even a Native American song.

The entire 80-member choir will present its fall concert, “A Winter Festival in Song,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Crescent Elk Auditorium.

Songs to be performed include “Carol of the Bells,” “I Wonder as I Wander,” “Snowfall,” “Huron Carol,” “Ding Dong! Merrily on High,” “A Joyous Glad Noel” and “Elijah Rock.”

The concert is free and open to the public, and will last approximately one hour. For more information, call 218-6769.