On Sunday April, 22, the Dickinson College Collegium tuned up for their upcoming Italian tour by performing in front of a capacity crowd in Old West's Memorial Hall. The Collegium, under the direction of Associate Professor of Music Blake Wilson, performed Americana: The Best of American Choral Music. The program included music by leading American choral composers Morten Lauridsen and Randall Thompson, among others, and spirituals and traditional American folk songs arranged by Alice Parker.

The tentative itinerary for the 11-day tour includes performances in Bologna, Siena, Florence and Modena. The repertoire will be American traditional and Italian Renaissance works. The ensemble's last Italian tour in spring 2003 drew large crowds at many of its concerts, Wilson says, including at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where St. Francis of Assisi was baptized and where the group received a standing ovation. "We all had the time of our lives," says Wilson. "And we would now like to build on the incredible success of that first tour, including again recording a CD of the concert in Bologna."