May 29 – June 3, 2007

This is your invitation to the first International Choir Festival in Oberammergau, Germany.
A brand new choir festival will take place in Oberammergau, home of the world famous Passion Play, May 29 – June 3, 2007. The festival is an adjudicated event with representation from the U.S. and Germany. This event will happen every two years, not to conflict with the world famous Passion Play which is performed every 10 year.

Depart USA from a major airport near you.

Day 2, May 30:

Arrive in Munich; meet an MTS Travel representative who will assist your group. Transfer to the charming village of Oberammergau for the first international choir festival. Accommodations in local hotel for four nights. This evening all choir directors will enjoy a reception with the Lord Mayor and other local officials as they welcome you to their home.

Day 3, May 31:

A full day of music presentations at various locations in the area. The choirs will be grouped by the number of voices in the choir.

Day 4, June 1:

Another day of music. Your choir will be scheduled, according to your performance time, to enjoy a tour of Oberammergau including a backstage visit of the Passion Theatre. Optional half day excursions will be offered for your free time. This evening a gala dessert reception is planned for all choir directors and choir members. We are hoping to enjoy some performances by our prestigious adjudicators.

Day 5, June 2:

A mass choir rehearsal will be scheduled for this morning. The balance of the day is free for your choir members to enjoy the charm and delights of Oberammergau and the surrounding areas. The Grand Finale concert this evening on the stage of the Passion Theatre will be a wonderful memory for your choir. As choir director you will receive a gift copy of a CD recording of the evening. Additional copies are available for purchase by your choir members.

Day 6, June 3:

There are several options available for you today;

• Return flight to USA
• Choir singing at a local church service
• Begin a post-festival tour
• Travel to Passua and join the Peter Deilmann river cruise on the Danube.

$499 per person, double occupancy
Airfare rates available Spring 2006

PRICE INCLUDES:

• Meet & greet at Munich Airport
• airport transfers (if air is purchased through MTS TRAVEL)
• 4-Nights hotel (3-star hotels, 4-star hotel supplement available)
• 2 Meals daily
• Village shuttle service
• Dessert reception
• Participation in Saturday evening choir performance
• City tour of Oberammergau with backstage tour of the Passion Theatre

Plan now to have your choir return for the
International Choir Festival 2009!

Camp Kirkland
Over the past three decades, Camp Kirkland has emerged as one of the premier Church musicians in the nation. He is recognized as the pioneer in establishing instrumental music as a viable medium in the life of the church music program. In 1971, he began the instrumental music program at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida. This program is still a model of excellence in music and effectiveness in ministry. Students and associates of Mr. Kirkland lead many of the great church orchestras around the country.
In addition to being a highly skilled and recognized educator, clinician and spokesman, Camp Kirkland has enjoyed a brilliant career as an arranger and orchestrator. He has over a thousand publications in his catalog and is an important contributor to the leading publishers of church music today. He has the reputation of being a consummate professional both in the creative process, in the recording studio, and in working with church music programs around the country. Camp's love for Christ is evident in every phase of his art. Church musicians around the world have been blessed not only by his music but also by his testimony to the faithfulness of God. Camp Kirkland continues his music ministry, assisted by his wife Fran, through Camp Kirkland Productions, located in Franklin, Tennessee.

Dr. Horace Boyer
Horace Boyer is Professor of Music Theory and African-American Music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an acknowledged scholar in the field of African-American gospel music. He has directed numerous choirs and toured forty states performing gospel music with his brother James. Dr. Boyer has published over forty articles in journals such as Music Educators Journal, the Black Perspective in Music, and the Black Music Research Journal. He contributed ten arrangements of Negro Spirituals and gospel songs to Lift Every Voice and Sing, a 1982 supplemental hymnal for the Episcopal Church of the United States, for which he served as general editor for the 1993 revision. His new book, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel has just been published by Elliot and Clark.
Dr. Boyer grew up in Winter Park, FL in a deeply religious home. Both his parents were ministers in the Church of God in Christ, and Boyer sang in the choir from third grade. Horace and his brother James began performing the music they'd learned at local churches and, at ages 15 and 16, started recording gospel records as "the Boyer Brothers." With money earned from their performances, the brothers put themselves through Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach. The Boyer Brothers have since traveled throughout 40 states, appearing in concerts, festivals, and on television in solo performances, as well as with such famous gospel singers as Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. Boyer went on to earn M.A. and Ph.D degrees in music from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He has directed countless singers in choirs, ensembles, and workshops.

Bob Burroughs
Bob Burroughs was born in Tazewell, VA and is currently a member at Brookwood Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL. Bob held church positions at First Baptist Church, Muskogee, OK (1961-65) and First Baptist Church, Abilene, TX (1965-71). He served as Composer-In-Residence, Samford University, Birmingham, AL (1971-80), Composer-In-Residence, Palm Beach Atlantic College, West Palm Beach, FL (1990-94) and Director of the Church Music Department, Florida Baptist Convention, Jacksonville, FL (1994-2001).
Burroughs holds degrees from Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, NC (AA), Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, OK (BME), and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary School of Church Music, Ft. Worth, TX (MCM).
Bob has over 2000 published works in print with 28 different companies including three books: Church Music In Today's World - Tempo Music; So You Want To Be A Composer - Lorenz; and This Idea Will Work - Lorenz
"I believe strongly in children/youth choirs. They are the backbone of the future. Without them and without training them, we will be very way short of musicians in the immediate future. Churches who are cutting back or eliminating children's choirs will sorrowfully regret this action soon, when there are no singers, instrumental players, bell ringers or soloists available." He enjoys cooking, reading, racquetball, and walking. Bob and his wife have two children and five grandchildren.

Thomas Gropper
Thomas Gropper was born in the town of Braunlage in Central Germany. He studied opera and concert singing with Markus Goritzky at the University for Music and Theater in Munich, Germany. He further studied oratorio singing with Adalbert Kraus and Hanns-Martin Schneidt as well as melody singing with Helmut Deutsch. Since he finished his studies he has worked with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Josef Metternich.
His main focus lies in oratorio singing where he has interpreted every important bass and baritone part from Monteverdi and Schuetz to Orff and Britten. Many of his performances have been recorded for radio and CD. These concentrated mainly on oratorios and cantatas written by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Gropper has sung with the Munich Philharmonics, the Munich Bach Choir, the Munich Motetten Choir, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt, the Berlin and Munich Symphonic Orchestras and the Heinrich-Schuetz-Ensemble Munich. He has worked under conductors like Fabio Luisi, Hanns-Martin Schneidt, Hayko Siemens, Wolfgang Kelber, Roderich Kreile and Siegfried Heinrich.
The highlights of this season were Orff’s “Carmina Burana“ at the Stiftsruine Bad Hersfeld Festival and the following concert tour, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s „First Walpurgis Night“ with the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra at the Berlin Philharmony Concert Hall, Haendel’s „Theodora“ together with Emma Kirkby at the Residence Munich as well as Orff’s „Carmina Burana“ with the Munich Motetten Choir in Istanbul.
Thomas Gropper also works in the area of opera singing. He could for example be heard as Figaro, Don Giovanni and Papageno. He sang the part of Don Febeo from Simon Mayr’s “Che Originali” at the City Theater Ingolstadt as well as for a CD production. And he participated in several scenic productions of Bach’s “Johannes Passion” and Orff’s “Carmina Burana”.
An important part of Thomas Gropper’s work is education. He is voice coach at the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Motetten Choir and he teaches at Munich’s Drama School. Since 1997 he has worked as a teacher at the Munich Conservatory where he became professor for song, speech and singing didactics in 2001.

* Several other Adjudicators will be added including several from Germany.