The 67 members of UConn’s Concert Choir spent nine days during Spring Break 2018 participating in the American Celebration of Music in Austria and Italy that included memorable performances in Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart, and under Michelangelo’s most famous painting, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

The Concert Choir is the premier large choral ensemble for undergraduate and graduate music majors and advanced university students from all majors that performs music of all styles and periods led by Jamie Spillane ’87 MM, associate professor of music and director of choral studies in the Department of Music. Members of the choir also performed with the UConn Chamber Singers, Women’s Choir, and Collegium Musicum.

Spillane accompanied the Concert Choir overseas with Mary Ellen Junda, professor of music and director of Women’s Choir, and Eric Rice, head of the Department of Music and director of the Collegium Musicum ensemble, who is a specialist in the history and performance of music composed before 1750.

During their European travel, the UConn musicians sang in Mass at Salzburg Dom, the 17th-century Baroque cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg in Austria; Saint Mark’s Basilica in the heart of Venice; and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. They also performed as part of the American Celebration of Music at the historic churches Basilica di Santo Spirito in Florence and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.

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