The group of 35 students represented four of the school’s nine choirs, which are under the direction of Bradley Gardner and Andrew Knaup. Student teacher Joseph Nizich, accompanist David Duncan and family members of the high schoolers also traveled with the ensemble.
Audiences warmly welcomed the performers and requested encores at each concert. In addition to the planned shows, the choirs turned in impromptu performances at such sites as Singers Hall in Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany, the Salzburg Cathedral and Hallein Salt Mine and Melk Abbey, both in Austria.
Their concerts included works by Bach and Hogan and a Hoosier bicentennial medley that included “Back Home Again in Indiana,” “On the Banks of the Wabash” and “Can’t Get Indiana Off My Mind.”
When not performing, the students had the opportunity to go on sight-seeing tours, which included stops at Marabel Gardens, Schoenbrunn Palace, the birthplace of Mozart, the home where Strauss was raised, the Haydn Memorial House and Dachau, the infamous concentration camp that became the model for all others established by the Nazi regime across Europe.
Students and their families helped finance the trip’s cost through fundraising over the past three years.