MONROE — The Turner Hall of Monroe’s Swiss Heritage Series has announced that Master Yodeler Kerry Christensen will be performing two concerts in Turner Hall’s Grand Hall during Cheese Days weekend. He will be taking the stage on Friday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. Both performances are free, but donations will be accepted for the Swiss Heritage Series. Additionally, Kerry will do a presentation on world yodeling styles on Saturday, Sept. 19 at noon, also in Turner Hall’s Grand Hall.
From Utah, Kerry first appeared in Monroe at Turner Hall over 20 years ago, which launched him into the role of featured performer for Cheese Days through 2024. Raised on a potato farm in Idaho, Kerry developed a passion for yodeling in the mid-1970s while in Austria, then continued practicing 14-15 hours a day as he drove the family tractor around the potato fields. His career as a professional yodeler took off when Disney World in Orlando hired him in 1984 to work in the German Pavilion at Epcot Center, where he was the Disney World Yodeler until 1990. After his experience at Disney, Kerry headed out on his own and has had great success as one of only two or three professional full-time yodelers in the United States. His yodeling has taken him to various festivals and events all over the United States and Canada, as well as being an honored guest and performer in 2013 and 2018 at World Yodel Day in South Korea.
Honoring the culture and traditions Green County’s earliest cheesemakers brought with them from Switzerland, Turner Hall’s Grand Hall will also be the site for other Swiss-related performances on the Saturday of Cheese Days. The Monroe Swiss Singers will start with a half hour performance at 11 a.m., followed by Kerry’s world yodeling presentation at noon. Other performances include the Green County Alphorns at 1 p.m.; die Musikfreunde, with traditional Swiss folk tunes, at 2 p.m.; a PowerPoint presentation on Swiss Immigration to Green County at 3 p.m.; and the New Glarus Yodel Club at 4 p.m., followed at 5 p.m. by another mini-concert by the Monroe Swiss Singers before Kerry’s 6 p.m. performance.
Established in 1868 by Swiss and German immigrants as a place to carry on homeland traditions, including gymnastics (a gymnast is a Turner), the Turner Hall of Monroe is a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, and believed to be the only Turner Hall of Swiss origin left in the United States. The present building, a Swiss Emmental-style chalet designed by German architect Max Hanisch, opened in 1938 following the destruction of the original building by fire in 1936. It is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.
