After a little over a year of fundraising and practicing, the MHS Choral Department looks forward to traveling to Austria from June 27 to July 4 to perform at the 2023 Salzburg Choral Festival. In addition to performing classical works, they have a new choral work by American composer Zac Flasch specially composed for the group, which debuted at their May 10 concert and will be performed at the European premiere in a standalone concert in Vienna, Austria July 3.

“It has felt great knowing that we are feeling more prepared and confident as the date approaches,” Ini Edet, junior, said. “Seeing where we started at the beginning of the year and the progress that we have made has made our choir grow closer.”

Along with their performances, members will be able to spend some of the week-long trip exploring Austria, including visiting The Sound of Music’s filming locations, a cable car ride up the mountains, and guided tours of famous locations in both Vienna and Salzburg. With the end of school comes the end of in-class and after school rehearsals, so the four week gap between school ending and the trip is what worries Mr. Luke McGinnis, choir director, most about the trip. Since he spent time traveling abroad to perform and explore with choirs he was a part of in college, Mr. McGinnis views the trip as passing down the same opportunities to his students.

“That is what was probably most formative for me as a person, not only as a musician, experiencing other cultures that go into Europe,” Mr. McGinnis said. “What I’m most excited for is watching everyone’s experience and thinking, wow, I’m passing along what my teachers gave me, like I gave that opportunity to other people. They’ll never forget this, even if they never sing another note in their life, this will undoubtedly be one of the most formative music experiences of their life. Just to think that the composer sat there, wrote parts out by hand in that space and then being able to take that music there.”