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Alex Vella Gregory wrote about Schola Cantorum Jubilate's tour in Austria on The Sunday Times of Malta.

If you think that Austria is all about lederhosen, Sacher torte and big bearded men yodelling with mugs of beer in their hand, think again. Nothing could have prepared me or the choir Schola Cantorum Jubilate for the wonderful surprise that is Austria when we went on tour in September 2009.

Schola Cantorum Jubilate is a young Gozitan choir that has been steadily making a name for itself. Directed by the energetic Marouska Attard, the choir has gone from strength to strength over the years. Its greatest strength is the enthusiasm that permeates through the whole group, making singing a fun experience. I must admit I was a bit worried about joining a choir as an outsider, but from the very start I was made to feel at home within the group.

The first stop on the itinerary was Linz, Capital of Culture for 2009 and a charming city buzzing with life. It was clear from the start that musicians enjoy an unofficial privileged status, judging from the number of street musicians about town, all with a crowd of admirers around them. It also became clear that Austrians take their music very seriously, and we had to live up to the local standards.

Austrians are, in general, very warm and friendly, quite unlike the misconceptions we have of them being cold, exacting and German. Wherever we went, they made us feel at home. We even sang in a few places off the scheduled itinerary, including the fabulous hill-top church of Postlingberg in Linz . Every time the people welcomed us with open arms, and the minute they heard we were a choir, they got even more enthusiastic.

The first concert, at the Old Cathedral of Linz, was slightly nerve-wrecking for us. Apart from being the first concert of the tour, we also had to deal with an unfamiliar space, one which was as unforgiving as it was beautiful. The concert consisted of choral pieces as well as solos by soprano Marouska Attard and saxophonist Philip Attard. It is difficult to convey in words the ethereal beauty of a saxophone resounding across the massive aisles of a church, and without doubt Philip more than rose to the occasion. After the concert the Jesuit priests who take care of the cathedral showed us the magnificent organ that was once played by Anton Bruckner.

The choir's repertoire is an interesting blend of old polyphony and contemporary works. It is an integral part of the choir's philosophy to commission new works, and indeed whilst on tour we sang pieces by composer Paul Portelli as well as Mark Debono, one of the choristers. It is also part of the choir's philosophy to get the choir to sing in as many different places as possible. Singing in different acoustics is a challenge to the choir and an important part in its formation.

One of the more challenging spaces was the Schloss Hellbrunn in Salzburg, a magnificent Baroque palace famous for its follies. Tucked away in a corner of the its massive gardens is a gazebo, made famous by the film The Sound of Music , and we could not resist singing a short medley from this film in front of the gazebo. Incidentally, Salzburgers are highly dismissive of this musical, considering it a piece of American kitsch. One cannot blame them for the real Salzburg is far removed from anything remotely reminiscent of Rodgers & Hammerstein. It is a city bursting with music and history, and has a princely aura about it. It is also Mozart's city, a fact of which one is reminded constantly!

After the idyllic setting of Salzburg, Vienna came as a shock. It is a cosmopolitan city bursting with activity, and more importantly with music. In Vienna we had some of our more important engagements. The first was singing during a Mass at the St Stephen's cathedral, a towering Gothic structure with a resounding acoustic. Whilst in Vienna , the choir would also sing at the Peterskirsche, a magnificent Baroque church which also hosts concerts regularly. For both concerts we were joined by Austrian organist Ewald Gargitter.

The other big concert in Vienna was an afternoon concert at the Haus der Musik, a museum of sound and music a few steps away from the Staatsoper. Whereas the repertory so far had been mostly sacred, this concert saw the choir tackle secular pieces by Elgar, Sullivan and Charles Camilleri. There were also more solo pieces from Marouska Attard and saxophonist Philip Attard. It was also for this concert that I premiered my Piano Sonata No. 4, a work inspired by the niches of Valletta. The concert was enthusiastically received by all those present.

Although this consisted the greater part of the tour, the choir also sang at the Benedictine abbeys of Melk and Gottweig, which lie in the Wachau region west of Vienna. It is to the organisers' credit that we managed to sing in so many place, most of which are very difficult to get access to. Whatever reluctance the guardians of the venues might have had about letting the choir sing, was soon dispelled upon hearing the polished singing. One such example was the Schonnbrunn palace in Vienna, where the choir sang as part of the Voices of the World project, but also got to sing in the royal chapel (normally closed to the public) and the magnificent state dining rooms (which temporarily brought the guided tours to a halt).

Perhaps this was the greatest lesson for all on the tour, that singing is not a hobby or a diversion, but a powerful tool for communication. The sound of young voices in perfect harmony is enough to make people stop and think, and it also projected a positive image of Malta in a way that no advertising campaign can. Luckily for us we had Citadel Video Communications Ltd. with us to capture some of that magic on film for posterity's sake, but nothing beats the thrill of communicating something to people who would otherwise be beyond our reach.