AUBURN — A concert audience Friday night got close to the legendary story of Maria von Trapp.

Elisabeth von Trapp, the daughter of a Von Trapp Family Singer, delighted her audience with “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss” and “Climb Every Mountain” in a performance at the United Methodist Church.

In a beautiful voice, von Trapp also performed original music, patriotic, popular and spiritual songs, from the jazzy “I’m Beginning to See the Light” to the moving “Be Not Afraid.”

Von Trapp, who lives in Waitsfield, Vt., with her husband, Ed Hall, is the granddaughter of Baron and Maria von Trapp, and the daughter of Werner von Trapp; in the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie, “The Sound of Music,” his character was “Kurt.”

She saw the movie in 1965 at age 12. She recalled that the movie perplexed her father. “He was literal about things,” she said. He was disappointed that the story wasn’t exactly what happened, beginning with his name.

“He said, ‘Where do I fit in?’”

Another fiction was the ending, “climbing over that mountain” as the family fled Nazi-controlled Austria. In reality, the family left on a train. Before they left, they were asked to perform for Hitler’s 50th birthday. “They refused,” Elisabeth von Trapp said.

In the movie, the oldest sister danced and sang, “16 going on 17” in a gazebo with a Nazi youth. Never happened, von Trapp said.

The songs in “The Sound of Music” were not Von Trapp Family songs, she said. “It was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s.”

But much of the movie is true, von Trapp said, as she broke into “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.” She invited the audience to sing along on “My Favorite Things.” They did. They knew the words.

The Rev. Jacquelyn Brannen said she asked Elisabeth von Trapp to perform at the Auburn church after hearing her sing in Thomaston two years ago.

“Her music is wonderful,” Brannen said. When people see her in concert, “they see Maria and the captain and all the children. It just brings that memory to everyone’s hearts.”

In an interview before her performance, von Trapp said growing up in Vermont, close to the von Trapp camp and lodge, music has always been a huge part of her life.

“My father sang with us almost every night,” she said. “Whenever we’d have family reunions with my grandmother, there was always music at the end.”

She was 5 when “The Sound of Music” became a Broadway play. Actress Mary Martin played Maria, and visited the real Maria in Vermont.

“I met Mary Martin,” von Trapp said. “She came to show my grandmother and the family what the story was about. She sang some of the songs, ‘My Favorite Things’ and ‘Edelweiss.’” Her grandmother and Martin became friends.

Before the play, the Von Trapp Family Singers were popular in Europe and the United States for 20 years. Being part of a family act wasn’t easy, she said. “You’re dealing with the economy up and down, with bookings.” The von Trapp children had grown up with families of their own. Elisabeth remembers her father touring for months at a time. He eventually gave up touring and became a dairy farmer.

Elisabeth described her father as soft spoken, multi-talented. He sang tenor, composed music, was a stone mason and had a deep interest in philosophy and theology.

He also was a decorated U.S. Army sergeant, a member of the 10th Mountain Division Ski Patrol in Italy during World War II.

Her grandmother wasn’t exactly like the Maria played by Julia Andrews; at times she could be austere, other times witty and charming.

Almost like in the movie, Maria met Captain von Trapp while teaching at an abbey. She had planned to become a nun, but her plans changed when she was sent to tutor his seven children.

“She said she had fallen in love with the children,” Elisabeth said. “She grew to love my grandfather.” When they married, he was nearly 40; she was 21. They had three more children.

In Vermont, “she loved being a grandmother,” von Trapp said. “She made Christmases magical for us.”

Elisabeth was close to her grandmother. Maria spoke at her college graduation, and was there when she got married. When Maria died in 1987, “I was at her bedside,” Elisabeth said.

At her Friday concert, von Trapp sang about her grandfather immigrating to the United States, seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time, telling his family not to take freedom for granted. She performed a poignant melody of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “Edelweiss.”

Music, she said, adds purpose to her life and helps her hold memories.

Each time she sings a favorite song, “it will be different,” she said. “But I can return to memory and I can save it in the song.”

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