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Hill Country Cantibus makes its debut on June 1 in Marble Falls. The new professional choir will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 1803 RR 1431.

Admission is $10. Public high school students get in free with a student ID.

Marble Falls High School choir teacher Bryce Gage started Hill Country Cantibus earlier this year. He is its conductor.

“I wanted to raise a choral awareness for the Hill Country,” he told DailyTrib.com. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job as a high school (choir) program of doing some of that, but I think we can take it to a completely different level using professional musicians.”

Gage held auditions in February and March before selecting about 20 vocalists.

“Everyone is a professional musician of some sort,” he said. “There’s a few from this area, but they’re coming from as far as Lubbock and north Dallas. They are traveling into the area to sing and perform together.”

The group’s first-ever concert will feature a variety of songs.

“It’s going to span everything from Renaissance music to more current choral music,” Gage said. “I wanted to do things that would be challenging for us and fill our own personal musical buckets.”

A pre-concert rehearsal will mark the first time the entire choir is together under one roof.

“We only have one rehearsal,” Gage said. “Everybody gets the music, learns it on their own, and then we come together and perform.”

Gage hopes to bring more Hill Country Cantibus concerts to the area in the future.

“The plan is to start a three-concert season,” he said. “We’re going to discuss that when we all come together this Saturday.”

nathan@thepicayune.com