German high school choir to visit Batavia, Geneva July 18-20

An award-winning high school choir from Luebeck, Germany, will be visiting the Tri-Cities area from July 18-20.

The Oberstufenchor des Johanneums Zu Luebeck will be performing a free concert for the public at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 20, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 320 Franklin St. in Geneva.

While the concert is free, the St. Mark's choir will be asking for optional donations to help fund their international choir trip in 2017 to Wells Cathedral in England.

The Johanneums Zu Luebeck is a high school located in the medieval town of Luebeck, Germany, which is about 40 miles northeast of Hamburg in the northern part of Germany. Under the direction of Eva-Maria Salomon, the elite choir has about 50 singers and has toured several cities in Europe including Venice, Kopenhagen and Gothenburg. In 2013, the choir participated in a competition hosted by the German Musikrat and won first prize for youth and school choirs. The choir sings a diverse range of music from Brahms and Bach to modern composers and performs a cappella pieces as well as symphonic choral pieces with different orchestras. Eva-Maria Salomon, a very accomplished musician and conductor, has been the director since 2003. She is the founder of the University Choir of Luebeck and teaches conducting at the music conservatory.

Oberstufenchor des Johanneums Zu Luebeck is traveling to America as part of the Blue Lake International Exchange Program, a division of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, located in Twin Lake, Minn. They are touring several cities in Michigan and Illinois including Grand Rapids and Chicago.

Batavia residents Kellie and Emily Tratar are the co-chairs of the committee to host the choir during their time in Batavia and Geneva. Emily participated in the Blue Lake International Exchange Program last summer, touring throughout Europe with an American Choir. "I had such an amazing and life enriching experience sharing my love of music with people from other countries and learning about their cultures last summer that I was inspired to help other kids my age, have the same experience," said Emily Tratar, a sophomore at Batavia High School.

On Monday, July 18, the choir will arrive at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia. They will be greeted by Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke and welcomed to the Tri-Cities area. "We are so proud to be hosting this excellent choir from Germany and opening up our communities to host these fine young people," said Mayor Schielke. "We have been devoted over the past several years to supporting the arts in Batavia and the surrounding communities and this is a very exciting addition to that effort."

On Wednesday, July 20, the choir will perform a concert for the public at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. While the concert is free, the St. Mark's choir will be asking for optional donations to support their trip to England in 2017, as a choir in residency at Wells Cathedral, which will further strengthen the bond between the Tri-Cities and the international community of musicians.

Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is a summer school of the arts located on a 1,400-acre campus in Michigan's Manistee National Forest. It offers fine arts education for all ages. Each summer, the principal camp program serves more than 5,400 gifted elementary, junior high, and high school students with diverse programs in music, art, dance and drama while offering more than 175 performances during its Summer Arts Festival. Blue Lake also operates a widely acclaimed International Exchange Program and two public radio stations. Since its inception in 1966, Blue Lake has provided cultural enrichment to more than 300,000 gifted students and countless concertgoers.

As an extension of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp's summer camp program, the Blue Lake International Program continues the organization's philosophy of encouraging creativity and motivating young people to achieve in the arts. Blue Lake's International Exchange Program is dedicated to promoting peace and understanding through the universal language of the arts.

Since its inception, nearly 25,000 young European, Asian, and American artists have exchanged performances and experienced the love, wonder and excitement of a foreign land. More than 100,000 families in Europe and America have provided generous hospitality for the participants.

Countless concertgoers on both continents also have been touched by these goodwill ambassadors. To learn more about Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, visit www.bluelake.org.