Ireland extended a warm and unusually sunny welcome to 119 Napa High School choir students, along with 27 staff and chaperones, during spring break.

“Locals claimed that we brought California weather as the country enjoyed their warmest and sunniest spring week in many years,” reported Travis Rogers, choir director, who along with Jamie Butler, led the students in performances around the green isle.

The kids sang in Lisdoovarna, a small Irish village famous for the Match-Making Festival held every September, in Waterford and in Dublin, at both St. Patrick’s and Christ Church cathedrals. Napa’s Chamber Choir also performed at the Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogeda, revisiting a performance site that Napa High Choir performed at on their first tour of Ireland in 1990.

“From kissing the Blarney stone at Blarney Castle (one of three castles visited on the trip) to touring the Irish countryside, and shopping in Dublin, the kids enjoyed a truly once-in-a-lifetime trip,” Rogers told the Register.

Students reported  they also ate a year’s worth of potatoes in one week.

“Travis told us that some people thought he was crazy for choosing to spend his spring break with 120 teenagers,” one student said, “but he said said he felt like he was going with 120 of his best friends.”

Rogers confirmed that quote. “It’s true,” he said.

The Napa students are now preparing for the Northern California Golden State High School Choral Competition which takes at Pacific Union College in Angwin on May 22.

“Our Concert Choir will be competing in the large choir division: our Chamber Choir will be in the small choir division,” Rogers said. “Both divisions will have 10 choirs each competing, who, by audition, have been invited from throughout northern and central California to perform at the event. This event is the nearest thing we have to a state competition for high school choirs.”

The competition, which is open to the public, produces spectacular music. The Register will publish a schedule of performances closer to the event.

Chorale’s spring concert

The Napa Valley Chorale is preparing for its spring concert, “Choral Treasures,” which will be presented twice on May 6, at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Napa.

With this concert, the Chorale, led by Artistic Director and Conductor Jan Lanterman and Conductor Mark Teeters, completes its 45th year in the Napa Valley.

Singers in this intergenerational chorus range from high school age to senior citizens.

Lanterman said this concert “features some of the most beloved choral music ever written,” and “promises to lead the audience in experiencing a wide range of emotions from love, joy and sheer beauty, through stirring passion and patriotism, to deep sorrow and anger.”

Although Lanterman and Teeters will conduct most of the music in this concert, they’ll be assisted by Kevin Reid of Napa and Diane Strohmeyer of Petaluma. Ellen Patterson is the piano accompanist for the chorus; she will be assisted by Rachelle Davis, violinist, of Angwin; Suzanne Eraldi, oboeist, of Santa Rosa; and Wally Hunt, percussionist of Napa.

Choral works on the program include “Ave Maria” by Victoria, “Ave Verum Corpus” by Mozart, “Cantique de Jean Racine” by Faure and Kyrie Eleison from the Imperial Mass by Haydn.

Folk song and hymn/spiritual arrangements include “At the River,” arr. Copland; “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair,” arr. Rene Clausen; “Deep River” also by Clausen; “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal,” arr. Alice Parker; “No Time,” “Vamuvamba”and “Shenandoah.”

Contemporary works include “Amor de mi Alma” and “Lamentations of Jeremiah” by Stroope; “A Child Said” by McCray; “Dirait-on” by Lauridsen; “Five Hebrew Love Songs” by Whitacre; “Gospel America” by Farthing; “I Dream a World” by Thomas; “Prayer of the Children,” arr. Klous; “A Red, Red Rose” by Mulholland; “Sanctus” by Courtney; and “That Lucky Old Sun,” arr. Wesslen.

Tickets are $25 and may be purchased at 261-6165 or www.napavalleychorale.org