The Hesston College Bel Canto Singers and the Goessel High School Elbiata Singers will collaborate to present a concert at St. Fidelis Church: The Cathedral of the Plains in Victoria, Kan., at 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27. The concert is free and open to the public, though a free-will offering will be collected to cover program costs and for the ongoing work of St. Fidelis Church.

The combined choir will present a program of sacred and secular choral music with the theme “A Prairie Winter Sojourn.”

“This performance gives the choirs an opportunity to present a specific type of legato music within a sympathetic architecture,” said Bel Canto director Bradley Kauffman. “Bringing the legato voice together with a generous, live acoustic can be a uniquely inspiring experience. It is an aesthetic that inspired medieval and renaissance to modern composers.”

St. Fidelis Church was nicknamed The Cathedral of the Plains by William Jennings Bryan in 1912. The Romanesque church, which features German windows and works of art, Austrian hand-carved stations of the cross and an Italian marble altar, was completed in 1911. In 1971 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a “building of architectural significance,” and was named one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas in 2008. The church is free and open to the public every day of the year, with mass being celebrated daily.

Bel Canto Singers and Elbiata Singers are mixed chamber choirs with a long traditions of vocal excellence in their respective instituions. Bel Canto is directed by Kauffman and Elbiata Singers by Renae Peters. Members of both choirs are selected by competitive audition.

A charter bus leaving from Hesston at 1 p.m. Jan. 27, will travel to the concert for anyone wanting to attend. Seats on the bus can be purchased for $25 by calling Hesston College Alumni and Church Relations at 866-437-7866. Reservations and payment must be received by Friday, Jan. 25.