Tech’s Chorale group will be traveling to Italy for a concert tour in May. The ensemble has been preparing for their 10 day trip to Italy for a year now.
The choir has historically traveled abroad, but never to Italy. “The choir director before me took a group to London. It doesn’t happen very often for obvious reasons. Number one, it is expensive and, number two, it takes a lot of planning,” Craig Zamer, director of Chorale Activities, said.
“We did some major fundraising in the fall semester to kind of help ease the cost of the trip for the students. They had some personal fundraising opportunities and we raised some funds as a group last semester in particular.
Tech has been supportive during the planning and preparation for the Chorale’s trip. “I don’t think I would have as many students going on this trip if it wasn’t for the support we have received from the University on many levels. Kind of collaboratively, we were able to raise some significant funds to help make the trip not so expensive so that more people are able to participate,” Zamer said.
Among the places the choral will be visiting while in Italy are: Rome, Verona, Florence, Sienna, Venice and Milan where the choral will have their final performance at the Leonardo Davinci Museum.
“Rome is probably the place we spend the most amount of time,” Said Zamer. The choral will be performing two concerts while in Rome. One performance will be at a small church and will include the choral’s full concert selection. The other performance, however, has a more renowned location.
“Probably one of the most prestigious things the choir gets to do is while we are in Rome is we will be singing at the Vatican during a mass service,” Said Zamer. The choir will be singing a selection of specific pieces of music throughout the service at Saint Peter’s Basilica.
“This is a really unique opportunity. People go on trips all the time and go visit different places, but not everybody gets to go make music. So that is exciting,” Said Zamer.
The choral will have a farewell performance on May 12th at The Saint Thomas Aquinas Church in Cookeville before leaving for their trip on May 14th. For more information on this concert or the choral’s trip to Italy, contact Craig Zamer at Czamer@tntech.edu.
