Ensemble has been invited to participate in the Alta Pusteria International Choral Festival in Northern Italy this summer. We will fly to Graz, Austria, where we will be met and hosted by members of Singakademie. This will be the second time we have visited them and they will be coming to our Golden Gate Festival in July for their third time. From Graz, we will bus to nearby Maribor, Slovenia, to be hosted by the acclaimed choir Carmina Slovenica. Over the years, Piedmont and Carmina Slovenica have had several exchanges and they will be rejoining us in California in March 2016. Our final stop will be at the Alta Pusteria Festival in the southern Tyrolean Alps where we will be housed in a typical tyrol lodge in the small town of Riscone for 4 nights. This will be a non-competitive choral festival with 73 choirs participating from Australia, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Macedonia, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, and South Africa. We are the only American choir participating this year and are honored to be one of the 4 choirs performing in the large Gustav Mahler Concert Hall for the Opening Concert on the evening of our arrival. We will have daily concerts up and down the Pusteria Valley – from mountaintop performances, to open-air concerts, to concerts in churches and music halls. On the last full day, there will be a parade of all 73 choirs, culminating in a group performance of two pieces. Following the Festival, we will fly home from Munich to San Francisco.