Day 1
Departure from USA via scheduled air service, including full meal, beverage service and in-flight entertainment. The destination is Innsbruck, Austria, via the Munich airport.

Day 2 Innsbruck
Groups arrive in Innsbruck and check into hotels. Chorus members and non-singing participants gather for the Welcome Dinner with introductions, a brief orientation and Tyrolean folk entertainment.

Innsbruck, venue of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, is one of the most beautiful towns of its size (100,000). This 800-year-old university city is bounded on the north by the shimmering wall of the Nordkette Range of the Alps, on the south by the Tuxer Range rising to heights of 10,000 feet. The Empress Maria Theresia loved the Tyrol and Innsbruck, like her ancestor Emperor Maximilian I, which accounts for the city's many beautiful buildings.

Day 3 Innsbruck
Morning guided tours. Rehearsals with Eph Ehly begin after lunch. Non-singing participants may enjoy additional sight-seeing opportunities. Individual group dinners are followed by evening rehearsals.

Day 4 Innsbruck
Morning rehearsals. Afternoon guided tours. Individual group dinners are followed by evening rehearsals.


Day 5 Innsbruck
Dress Rehearsal with chorus, orchestra and soloists in the morning. Afternoon free for seeing more of Innsbruck, shopping, and preparing for the concert. Festival Finale Performance at the Innsbruck Congress Saal Tyrol, the largest and finest concert hall in Western Austria.

Day 6 Zurich
Morning transfer to Zürich, Switzerland

Zürich is Switzerland's largest city, and is presently considered to be the most important financial, industrial and commercial center in the country. In 1523, Zürich became the seat of the Swiss/German Reformation thanks to Zwingli who was given the pastorate of the Grossmünster. In 1800, Zürich still had only 17,000 inhabitants, but has experienced considerable and almost.uninterrupted growth since then due to its ideal location.

Day 7 Zurich
Half.day sightseeing in Zürich includes the Bahnhofstraße (exclusive shops and banking headquarters), Grossmünster, Old City, Quays, Lindenhoff and Fraumünster. Optional evening concert in the Fraumünster as part of the 2005 American Celebration of Music in Austria.

Day 8 Strasbourg
Morning transfer to Strasbourg, France.

Strasbourg holds a unique position in both French and German history. One of the earliest documents in both languages is the Strasbourg Oaths sworn by two of the sons of Louis the Pious (himself the son of Charlemagne). Johann Gutenberg was an early citizen of Strasbourg experimenting with movable type. The French National Anthem is also associated with this city. Today Strasbourg is the headquarters of both the multinational Council of Europe and the European Parliament.

Day 9 Strasbourg
This morning is devoted to exploring Strasbourg. La Petite France is the name given to the well-preserved and pedestrianized medieval quarter in the southwest section of the city. Its high gabled gingerbread houses on narrow streets and canals dates from the 16th and 17th centuries when millers, tanners and fishermen thronged the area. Visit the Cathedral that recalls the city's early ecclesiastical importance and the several centuries of struggles between bishops and citizens. Optional afternoon concert in Strasbourg as part of the 2005 American Celebration of Music in France.

Day 10 Paris
Full-day transfer to Paris.

They've all come to Paris. The Gauls, the Romans, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Dwight Eisenhower, the Czar of Russia, Lenin, the Queen of England, Benjamin Franklin and George Gershwin. Some have even tried to capture the city. And now everyone wants to come to Paris .. millions of tourists each year, motivated by the desire to see the most beautiful city in the world. But Paris is more than a city. It is a place that breathes history and legend, a combination of the modern and the ancient.

Day 11 Paris
Enjoy a half-day tour of Paris artistique, including entrance to the Louvre, largest and greatest art museum in the world. Also visit Ste. Chapelle, the ethereal and magical chapel often described as one of the greatest architectural masterpieces in the Western world. No visitor can fail to be transported by the glaze of light created by the 15 magnificent stained.glass windows separated by pencil.like columns soaring 50 ft. to the star-studded roof. Optional concert in Paris as part of the 2005 American Celebration of Music in France.

Day 12
Transfer to one of Paris's airports for the return flight to USA. Return home in the evening of the same day.

American Choir posing behind Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris