Inside the Salzburg Dom, the 17th-century cathedral where Mozart was baptized and performed on the organ almost 250 years ago, the University Chorus sang amidst passers-by and tourists one February afternoon."Performing music in the churches that it was written for is a surreal experience. It makes what you are doing musically authentic," Nicholas Brown '10 said.

Twenty-seven members of the Brandeis University Chorus, two Brandeis parents and two Brandeis students unaffilliated with the chorus attended an eight-day tour of Austria and Germany over February vacation. The group was led by choral director James Olesen, who also conducted nearly all of the performances.

The Arts Council at the Office of the Arts and the Brandeis music department funded the weeklong trip, which was facilitated by Music Celebrations International, a tour company based in Tempe, Ariz. that provides performance groups with international venues.

The tour included recitals at Frauenkirche, the Dachau concentration camp, St. Michael's Church, Wieskirche, Mirabell Palace and Salzburg Dom, where Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart once performed.

The chorus performed in a variety of languages, including Hebrew, Latin and German, and sang some American folk songs. Most pieces were informally performed a cappella.

The music was a way of commemorating and "reflecting," Brown said. One of the goals for this trip "was to work towards building a global community from Brandeis by using music as a tool," he said.

On a trip rich with historical concert locations, the chorus also found some more impromptu singing venues.

The chorus gave performances at airports and repeatedly sang "Edelweiss," the show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, while touring through the city of Salzburg.

Other musical performances were more emotionally and spiritually meaningful. At Dachau, the chorus formed a semicircle and sang the psalm setting,"Elohim Hashivenu" outside of a large monument commemorating the Holocaust.

The majestic beauty of the European landscape the chorus toured enhanced the thrill of performing for international audiences in historic locations.

"The whole area of [the Bavarian Alps] was just breathtaking; I felt as if I was on another planet," said Jennifer Faber '09, a member of the chorus.

Alia Bluestein '10, a chorus member, enjoyed visiting the Nymphenburg palace, a 17th-century summer residence for Bavarian royalty. She said that, although she had previously visited castles in Spain and Germany, the cathedrals and castles she saw on the tour were more "ornate and overwhelming."

At night, trip members got a glimpse of German culture through operettas and ballets. Students were able to obtain discounts for shows; standing room-only tickets cost as little as 13 euros.

Trip members also visited the Klutfabric, Munich's nightclub district. "[The Klutfabric] was like a carnival," Merker said.

The group was often given an hour or two to explore the European towns, but Faber complained that the visits to the destinations were rushed, and students did not even have enough time to take pictures.

According to Brown, the trip to Austria and Germany was the Brandeis music department's first international tour. Brown said he toured Prague, Vienna and Budapest with the Valley Ford Military Academy Regimental Band in June 2004 and wanted to bring the experience to the Brandeis University Chorus. Members of the chorus began discussing touring ideas early last year.

"I spent more than a year making [this tour] happen," Brown said. A committee of chorus members helped plan the trip, and Brown oversaw most of the administrative responsibilities, such as fundraising, budgeting and recruitment. The chorus raised money by selling T-shirts and professionally made CDs of chorus performances.

Almost all the members of the trip agreed the best feature of the trip was the opportunity to bond with other chorus members.

"When we got back, there was definitely a different environment in University Chorus," said Leah Merker '10, who has been a member of the chorus since last year. "There was just a completely different dynamic between the people who had gone. Now I know people from other sections of chorus that I would never have known," she explained.

Faber recalled an especially powerful moment in which the group members came together in their shared love for music.

"My favorite part of the trip was singing on the bus together," she said. "The singing began in the back of the bus and we eventually got the entire bus singing. We made a very beautiful harmony together."

Overall, the trip created new bonds among its members. A reunion with photos and stories from the trip will take place in Slosberg Theater at 6:15 p.m. March 26.

"Being in a choir and in a new environment united us," Merker said. "The second we landed in Boston, [all of us] wanted to return to Germany. We had an attachment to the experience, and we still feel that attachment now.