The Wartburg College Castle Singers will offer a  preview of their national tour with a dessert concert on campus Saturday, April 6.

Admission to the 3 p.m. “Jazz for All Seasons” concert in the Saemann Student Center ballrooms is free, but the group requests a donation for food and beverages.

The 33-member jazz ensemble will take to the road April 19-28 for performances in Dubuque, Pella, Marshalltown and Keokuk; Shreveport and New Orleans, La.; Memphis, Tenn., and Springfield, Ill.

The Castle Singers — the only U.S. Lutheran college choir of its kind — are especially excited to take their program to New Orleans.

“New Orleans is the place for jazz in our country,” said Dr. Jane Andrews, Castle Singers director and professor of music. “That’s where it all started. Jazz is just everywhere, and the audiences there are so receptive to our music.”

The “Jazz for all Seasons” section of the program features songs like “Summertime” by George Gershwin and “It Might as Well Be Spring” by Richard Rodgers. The “World of Jazz” set includes music from composers around the world.

Also in the repertoire is “Jazz Mass” by composer Craig Curry of Wichita, Kan., which was commissioned for the Castle Singers.

“The Jazz Mass has been wonderful because it provides an avenue for the Castle Singers to lead worship,” Andrews said. “It is the complete liturgy set in very sophisticated, but ‘hip,’ musical styles of jazz.”

The tour program will feature soloists Alex Shockley, a freshman from Cedar Falls; sophomore Emma Hellevik, Medford, Minn.; juniors Weston Hennings, Garrison, and Hallie Kinman, Norwalk; and seniors Lindsay Mickelson, Lehigh, and Emily Bell, Nora Springs.

For a full tour schedule, visit https://www.wartburg.edu/music/tours.aspx.