Several members of the Santa Rosa Junior College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers are preparing to travel to New York where they will perform Verdi’s “Requiem” under composer John Rutter in Carnegie Hall.

They recently performed for a large crowd in Burbank Auditorium on March 27. The production was titled “IN MEMORIA AETERNA (In Eternal Memory).”

They performed Verdi’s Requiem along with other classical choir pieces, a celebration of Good Friday and Passover. The performers took the stage at 7:30 p.m. sharp, with men in suits and the women in formal dresses. As the music filled the room the audience fell silent and the voices of the performers carried well into the area surrounding the auditorium.

“We wanted to perform here before the few of us go to New York so that everyone could kind of experience it,” said conductor Jody Benecke.

The moving themes of suffering and survival in the songs included a piece that was performed for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

The concert lasted about an hour and a half with a 15-minute intermission for the attending public to meet the performers and eat treats donated by community members. All the proceedings from the performance help fund the choir’s trip to New York.

The New York performance will occur at 8 p.m. on April 8. Contact Jody Benecke can be reached for ticket information.