In 2018, Northwestern’s Chamber Choir was able to make their first trip overseas. This summer, they plan on continuing their travels by competing in the 4th annual international choral competition Ave Verum in Baden/Austria.

The choir will be traveling from May 22 until June 3. They will be only one of ten international choirs competing in Ave Verum, out of the ten though, NSU’s Chamber Choir will be the only American choir competing.

The competition will mostly be held in Baden where may famous composers and musicians have been known to visit or live, such as Mozart, who’s famous piece “Ave Verum Corpus” was used as the name for the event.

According to their site, “All 10 choirs sing together at the end of their short programs Mozart’s ‘Ave verum corpus’ which was first performed at the same place in 1791” as a closing to the competition.

Sarah Palmintier, a freshman soprano in Chamber Choir, says that this opportunity allows her to leave the country for her first time. “I have never been out of the country and I am so excited to travel with this awesome choir. We have been working hard to prepare for this trip. We are taking seven pieces of music that we just received this semester, as well as three pieces from the fall semester.”

With all this hard work, though, Chamber Choir members will still be expected to pay the difference of the travel costs if they aren’t able to raise the funds completely.

Palmintier says, “We are having to pay out of pocket. We have raised about $1500 in funds thru snap fundraising, but the rest we have to come up with.”

On Feb. 3, though, the publixc will have an opportunity to support Chamber Choir and help offset costs by participating in their fundraiser. This fundraising concert will be held at 3 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church located on 411 Second Street.