The Burlington Welsh Male Chorus is on the move.

Later today, the 55-member group and their spouses will board two buses. By nightfall, they'll be in Albany, N.Y. By tomorrow, they'll be in Wenham, Mass., a town just outside of Boston, for a concert at Gordon College.

Monday morning, they'll head for Newark, N.J., where they'll team up to rehearse with about 350 other male choristers from eight countries. On Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m., they'll take the stage of Carnegie Hall for a Celtic Celebration Concert that will feature renowned Welsh operatic bass-baritone Bryn Terfel.

But the BWMC's journey to New York's fabled hall has taken more than just "practice, practice, practice," that familiar punchline to the worn out joke about "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

For the BWMC, it also took an invitation from Haydn James, the musical director of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir.

Two years ago, the BWMC, as well as the Hamilton-based Canadian Orpheus Male Choir, travelled to London, England, to sing in a concert under James at the Royal Albert Hall. When James told them he'd be conducting a Welsh massed choir concert at Carnegie Hall and asked if they'd like to participate, the Burlington men jumped at the opportunity.

The BWMC decided to make a trip around their Carnegie Hall appearance by adding other concert dates -- hence the stop in Wenham, as well as the Sept. 20 concert in Scranton, Penn.

"One of the guys knew some Welsh person in Boston, so that's how we ended up going there," said Ray Williams, a founding member of the BWMC as well as the COMC. As Williams explained, Scranton has a long history of Welsh immigration that dates back to the 1880s, with men coming over to work in the coal mines and iron factories. This will be Williams' second visit to Scranton. He was a member of the COMC when it toured there under Lyn Harry in 1980.

Twenty-three of the BWMC's members are from Wales, including Williams, who worked in the coal mines there from age 15, before coming to Canada in 1969 at age 32. At least four of the choristers are Welsh-speaking and they provide pronunciation assistance to those in the choir who can't read the language, including the current director, Richard Street.

The night after Carnegie will find the BWMC doing another gig in what's become a sideline for them: singing backup for Jon Langford, once a punker from Newport, Wales, now an alt-country musician based in Chicago.

The Langford appearance was scheduled for New York's Highline Ballroom, but Dave Stewart (formerly of the Eurythmics) is booked to play there that night. So, Langford and the men will be at the Knitting Factory, a club in the Big Apple.

On the first Sunday in October, the BWMC will be backing Langford again -- this time in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The event will feature big-name acts such as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Odetta, Elvis Costello and Earl Scruggs. The BWMC is taking it all in stride: "They're getting to know us all over the place," said Williams.

Leonard Turnevicius writes on classical music for The Spectator.

leonardturnevicius@hotmail.com