Aside from beer, Volkswagens and Birkenstocks, another great German export is coming to Ames.

The Schaumburg Jugendchor (or Schaumburg Youth Choir) from Germany has been in Ames all week visiting and performing.

They will perform a solo concert this evening at 5:10 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Music Building.

The choir is made up of of 43 singers, ages nine to 25, and was founded in 1980.

It has toured extensively — not only all over Germany, but also in Russia, Japan and the United States —and filled five tapes and CDs with their songs, said Sylvia Munsen, artistic director and founder of the Ames Children’s Choir and assistant professor of music at Iowa State.

The Ames Children’s Choir has hosted choirs from France, Austria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and the United States, including our own ISUChamber Singers last June.

Now, the choir has the chance to host the Schaumburg singers, an arrangement that has resulted in some new friendships and experiences.

“We have many children [in the two choirs] the same ages,” Munsen explained, “and so they have families to be able to stay with.”

The choir performs a whole slew of different types of music and have memorized 68 selections, Munsen said.

“They sing classical music from all style periods, from Renaissance through contemporary,” she said.

“They sing spirituals, contemporary music from Broadway musicals and folk songs from Germany and all around the world, so they sing in many different languages.”

The 5:10 p.m. concert is free and open to the public.