Forty-four keen singers hopped aboard a plane to Austria earlier this week to experience the culture while sharing their own at an international music festival.
More than half of Okotoks’ Big Rock Singers choir headed east on Nov. 23 as Canada’s only representative at the International Advent Sing Festival in Vienna Nov. 27-29 where 100 choirs world-wide get audiences into the Christmas spirit by belting out festive songs.
The singers and 16 of their spouses will spend 10 days in Salzburg and Vienna performing at various venues from palaces to outdoor Christmas markets.
“It’s exciting to go experience the culture,” said singer Kevin Leiver. “The thing that I expect to be the most exciting is to sing in a palace. Something you can’t really do in southern Alberta is sing in a palace.”
Having never been to Europe, when Kevin and his wife Jocelyn learned of the opportunity to perform in Austria they hopped on board.
“It seemed like the perfect thing to do to get a chance to travel and do something we love together,” he said. “To perform in a big festival and in front of international audiences is a little bit scary, but it’s also really exciting. We love to perform and it’s really exciting to have the opportunity to perform in front of a new crowd.”
Preparing for an international audience took months.
“We’ve worked very hard preparing and we’ve been rehearsing for over a year,” Kevin said. “We know it all off by heart. We’re definitely ready to perform.”
The Leivers and dozens of others boarded the plane this week well tuned.
“We’ve joked about having a rehearsal on the plane over,” said Kevin before leaving. “I wouldn’t be too surprised if we break into song at the airport, if not in mid air. We will definitely have a captive audience.”
Kevin joined the Big Rock Singers two years ago.
“I’ve sung with a lot of choirs, but this one has a unique energy,” he said. “We memorize the songs so we can have our hands free for dancing. It’s about having a lot of fun.”
Among Kevin’s favourite songs for the festival and other venues during their tour is a unique arrangement of Jingle Bells.
“It’s not the Jingle Bells that you know,” he said. “The audience will be able to sing along for part of it, but it’s got a swing section and rock section.”
Big Rock Singers music director Carey Gruber said the choir will be celebrating 25 years of existence on the trip.
“It was just a desire to travel internationally,” she said, adding the group has never left southern Alberta to perform. “We’ve been researching travel destinations for three years.”
Gruber got a sneak peak at their destination during a directors’ orientation in Vienna last summer along with directors from other choirs around the world.
“It’s very different from singing here,” she said, adding one venue will be an old stone church. “We have to sing a cappella, which we’ve never had to do.”
The Big Rock Singers have prepared more than a dozen songs ranging from mountain country music to one in German.
“It will be a thrill to perform on an international stage and it will be such a bonding experience for us to travel together as a choir,” she said. “I’m looking for the choir to be a cohesive unit, which is why we are going to be together all the time.”
Among the highlights is a private concert at a house in Vienna that composer Wolfgang Mozart lived in.
“To be going to Europe to sing Mozart in the country where he was born and lived is going to be incredible,” Gruber said.
Shortly after returning to Canada, the Big Rock Singers will converge for its local interactive Christmas concert Season of Joy, featuring a mix of traditional and contemporary favourites and those they performed in Austria.
At the concert they will show a slide show of their trip to Austria and the Calgary Swiss yodel club’s Jodlerklub Heimattreu will perform, Gruber said.
“The concerts we have are fun and get people in the Christmas spirit,” she said, adding they often sell out. “What our audience will see is a sparkle in our performance. Everyone will be keen to know what we did (in Austria). It’s perfect for the whole family.”
Season of Joy will take place at the Okotoks United Church on Dec. 12 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets cost $30 and can be purchased at Sobeys and at bigrocksingers.com
