Yodelers to Sound Off at Civic Theatre Tonight

West Coast yodelers yearning for the Swiss Alps may not have the snowy summits to echo their talents, but singers from 11 Swiss singing clubs will bounce their songs off the walls of the Civic Theatre tonight.

“It takes a lot of practice and technique to get the sound out there,” said George Reber, spokesman for the San Diego Swiss Singers.

“It’s a joyous expression of feelings.”

The concert, which includes San Diego yodelers Anna Sigrist and Gerda Mares, will showcase folk songs in Switzerland’s four languages: German, French, Italian and Romansch, a language similar to Latin that is spoken along the Austrian border of Switzerland.

The yodelers will pitch their voices along with a 350-member choir and marching bands during a two-hour show of Swiss folk music, culture and native costumes, starting at 8 p.m.

The concert is part of the four-day Pacific Coast Swiss Singing and Yodeling Festival, which began Thursday. Held in San Diego for the first time, the festival for Swiss singing clubs is now in its 20th year, Reber said.

The festival, begun in Oregon in 1935 and held every three years, is expected to draw Americans of Swiss descent from Oregon, Washington, Utah, California and Canada. In San Diego, 250 members of the San Diego Swiss Singers club carry on their musical heritage, he said.

The festival coincides with a yodeling festival in Solothurn, Switzerland, this weekend which is expected to attract about 12,000 yodelers from all over Switzerland, Reber said.

A quartet of alphorn players and a zither soloist have also been invited to regale Swiss music enthusiasts, Reber said. The alphorn is a 10-foot long horn once used to send messages from one Alpine peak to another, he said. It was later used to call cattle. A zither is a stringed instrument played on the lap.

On Saturday, 11 choirs will compete during daylong festivities beginning at 11 a.m. at Swiss Park, a private, 5-acre park in Chula Vista owned by the San Diego club. A barbecue dinner follows at 5:30 p.m. with dance music until 1 a.m. by the City Police Band and the Village Street Band, both from the Swiss capital of Bern.

Tickets for tonight’s concert at the Civic Theatre, 202 C St., are $15, $18, and $22 at the door, and $15 for Saturday’s festivities in Swiss Park, 2001 Main St., Chula Vista. Admission to the park after 6 p.m. is $6.