The Palo Alto High School choir will sing with an orchestra and an adult choral group at two local performances in the coming weeks, according to choir director Michael Najar.

The choir’s first appearance is at the Invitational Choral Festival hosted by the Schola Cantorum, a Mountain View based adult choir. The Schola Cantorum and Paly’s choir plan to perform side-by-side on some pieces from the repertoire, which includes Mozart’s Coronation Mass as well as “O Magnum Mysterium.”

The second concert, named Crowning Glory, is a collaborative effort between all the choir groups and an orchestra. The program is comprised of further selections from Mozart’s Coronation Mass as well as other triumphant compositions, according to Najar.

Many choir members are looking forward to this seasons round of concerts.

“I am really excited for the concert, the choir has a great and challenging set of music and we are going to blow people away,” junior Julia Edholm said. “This is a really ambitious fall concert, and will set the stage for a great year.”

Najar added, “we have some remarkably talented soloists being featured, including [junior] Julia Edholm, [junior] Arielle Fishman, and [senior] Nathan Wilen.”

In addition to collecting a variety of new pieces, the women in concert choir will showcase entirely new costumes. Unlike last year’s green costumes, this year’s are billowy and black.

“[When I wear the new dress] I feel like a Grecian goddess in mourning,” junior Lara Cutkosky said.

Paly’s choir and their new costumes have a long road ahead of them, including many more concerts and several tours.

“We’ll be doing a national choral tour this March,” Najar said. “The choir is also planning for an international tour to Eastern Europe later this year.”

The first concert will take place at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17 at the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto. The second will begin at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Crowning Glory is free for students; however, Najar encourages students to attend both.

Editor’s note: The original version of the story stated that the Crowing Glory concert would be performed with the Paly orchestra. That is not the case. The current version of the story reflects the change.