5/3/24

By FHSU University Communications

HAYS, Kan. - When Terry Crull, FHSU Director of Choral Activities, traveled to Austria with the Fort Hays Singers to perform in the Salzburg Cathedral in 2018, there’s no way he could have known that he would return six years later as artistic director for the Salzburg Choral Festival.

Crull, Pam McGowne, FHSU accompanist, and the Fort Hays Singers performed with four other U.S. choirs during the 2018 festival. Fast forward six years, when the selection process for a 2024 Salzburg Choral Festival director was underway, organizers wrote to Crull and McGowne inviting them to be the festival’s musical team.

Crull will be co-directing the Jubilate Mozart with Janos Czifra, who served as musical director during Crull and the Fort Hays Singers' previous trip to Austria.

Throughout his career, Crull has garnered many accolades. Directing the choirs in Austria ranks high on his list.

“This is a big highlight,” Crull said. “To come at this point in my career. It could be the last great thing I’ll get to do musically as far as conducting.”

The Austria trip will be the first international excursion for the Smoky Hill Chorale, an adult choir directed by Crull. Previously known as the Hays Community Choir, the Smoky Hill Chorale began more than twenty years ago. The group performs twice per semester, joining other FHSU musical ensembles at the annual Cathedral Christmas Concert at the Basilica of St. Fidelis and the FHSU Masterworks concert. 

For Glenna Alm, who has sung with Smoky Hill Chorale since its Hays Community Choir days, being a group member has been a way to continue singing after her college days.

“It keeps us young,” Alm said. “To be able to share this opportunity with my fellow choir members and meet new friends with the same mindset when it comes to singing the Masterworks is a wonderful feeling.”

“Mozart is one of my favorite composers. To think we will be where he was is so awesome.”

Fifty people will be traveling to Austria, including members of the Smoky Hill Chorale, 12 members of the Fort Hays Singers, alumni, spouses, and friends. Thirty-one of those travelers will be singing with the ensemble. In addition to the Salzburg Choral Festival, the group will perform at Wieskirche, a pilgrimage church, and Melk Abbey, located near the Danube River.

The Salzburg Choral Festival will be held in the Salzburger Dom (cathedral), the seventeenth-century Baroque cathedral in Salzburg, Austria. The cathedral contains the baptismal font in which composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptized.

The group will sightsee at many historic places, including Hapsburg Palace.

“Singing and the festival is the highlight of the trip,” Crull said. “We will have sung all our pieces at our spring concerts. We will be well-prepared.”