A caravan of trained academic animals is to tour the county in late April and early May that may prove to be more than a barrel of monkeys, but songbirds who transform themselves from lambs to tigers, muskrats to Teddy bears, as well as into lions, panthers and a kitten, a duck and a hippotamus. It's a zoo....but one of choral charm!

It's the annual spring tour of the Cochise College Choir trained by the choral zookeeper, Sunny Ficthl, whose menagerie of choristers will strut through their free performances in Benson, Friday, April 27 at 7 PM at the Cochise College location, and Elgin Elementary School, Saturday, April 28 at 3 PM. The additional concerts are to be held at the Douglas Presbyterian Church, Friday, May 4 at 7 PM, Sierra Vista Kino Hall (at St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church) Saturday, May 5 at 3 PM, and Bisbee's St. Patrick Catholic Church Sunday, May 6 at 3 PM.

Zoobilee, De Animals-a-Comin' is a recital of popular tunes and well-known words by some of the world's great animal observers, such as William Blake, Paul Simon, Ogden Nash, and Aaron Copland, among lots of others. "Bless the Beasts and Children," "Counterpoint of the Animals," and "Animal Crackers" are featured songs together with "Teddy Bear's Picnic," and "Tom Paxton's "Goin' to the Zoo."

It's planned to be choral trip to and through the zoo that many will remember from their childhoods. Stretching their necks like giraffes and striped like incarcerated zebras, tunes are meant to bounce like the denizens of monkey island from one treasured theme to another.

Ensembles include "Animal Crackers," "Ratcoon," and Greg Gilpin's "The Wizard of Oz." Jan Groth and Doug Petersen are to sing "Muskrat Love" to the piano accompaniment of Judy Wilkins and Sunny Fichtl.

Since the Cochise College Choir participated in the Sierra Vista Symphony's "Messiah" oratorio last year, there was no separate fall concert. But the whole zoo is back together to sing like people rather than parrots, orangutans, and crusty old elephants. Here's your free pass to a melodious spring trek through the Cochise College Zoobilee concert.