More than 30 CedarBridge Academy students will get the opportunity to perform in New York City next year — if they can find the money.

The CedarBridge school choir has been invited to perform in the New York Choral Festival to be held at Lincoln Center in March, but some of the students are finding it difficult to raise the funding for the trip.

CedarBridge's music director Granville Oldham said several members of the choir have been invited on other trips, and cannot afford to go on all of them.

"We need some financial support," he said. "Some of our students already had trips planned for their other talents, like sports, and so we're having some concerns."

Thirty-two students between the ages of 14 and 18 have been invited to the March 29 festival where they hope to perform a 20-minute set as a guest choir. They will perform songs in Italian, French, German and Russian.

In the coming months, the choir has several fundraisers planned which it hopes will help finance the trip; included are a Christmas concert, a CD of Christmas Music, and a "concert of love" to be held just after Valentine's Day.

The students learned about the trip at the end of June and have been working hard since the start of the school year.

"Everyone is getting really excited about it," added Mr. Oldham. "They're singing in multiple languages, they're working hard and they're meeting their challenges.

"They've all been dedicated, attentive. They've shown up for class. They've been showing some real professional behaviour."

Before the big day in New York though, the choir has several performances on the Island including a concert with the Bermuda Philharmonic.

CedarBridge deputy principal Anthony Woods yesterday praised the choir and Mr. Oldham for their work, saying: "They're unbelievable. They sound like professionals. They've performed in churches around the Island, they've performed in City Hall. They're in constant demand.

"I am really excited with what's happening in our music programme."