WVHS orchestras perform at Carnegie Hall on June 8, tickets on sale now

There’s an old, well-known joke among musicians that goes like this…

“Do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall,” asked an out-of-town pedestrian to a New Yorker on a bustling Manhattan sidewalk. The reply: “Practice!”

Practice has paid off for the Warwick Valley High School Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. They will be performing at Carnegie Hall, possibly the most storied of all music halls in the world, on Sunday, June 8. The performance is part of Carnegie’s Distinguished Concerts International New York program.

This will be the first time that a Warwick Valley ensemble will perform at Carnegie Hall!

Altogether, 84 students will be performing and Warwick Valley High School music teacher and orchestra director Elissa Maynard will conduct. All 85 participants are honored, and even more excited, to have earned the opportunity.

“I mean, it’s every classical musician's goal – probably in all musical fields – to play at Carnegie Hall,” said Ms. Maynard. “Carnegie Hall, that's the pinnacle!”

The high school ensembles will be the closing act of a 2:00 pm matinee program billed as Sanctus x 3, appearing on Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium Perelman Stage. The WVHS Chamber Orchestra will begin the Warwick portion of the performance with three compositions, and then be joined by the rest of the WVHS Symphony Orchestra for two more piece.

“And this isn't the same as one of those festivals with a rotation of 15 ensembles that come through to perform,” explained Ms. Maynard. “Those are great and fun, too, but this is a set bill with our kids performing alongside professional groups. I told them, this isn’t amateur hour, people are paying for tickets to Carnegie Hall to come see us. We need to sound professional!”

Ms. Maynard’s musicians know a thing or two about “putting in the work,” as it’s their diligent practice (both at school and on their own) that earned them this honor. Carnegie Hall has a strict set of audition parameters for each of its programs, and Ms. Maynard began the process months ago, submitting performance footage from this year’s Winter Concert Series.

“They loved our video. It was so exciting. We were accepted for one date, but it ended being during our spring break,” said Ms. Maynard, explaining that vacation conflicts meant she couldn’t accept the invitation. “The students were really disappointed, particularly the senior class, who realize they won’t be here for future opportunities like this one.”

Ms. Maynard advocated diligently for the Warwick Valley ensembles, working with the people at Carnegie Hall to hopefully find a new date that worked. A few suggestions were made for next year, but Ms. Maynard remained adamant about getting this year’s Warwick group into this year’s Carnegie Hall schedule. That’s when she decided to contact Dr. Sandra Dackow.

Dr. Dackow is the Music Director of the Hershey Symphony Orchestra (PA) and the William Paterson University Symphony Orchestra (NJ), and internationally renowned for her arranging, conducting, and pedagogy. Ms. Maynard and Dr. Dackow met when the latter served as guest conductor for the WVHS Chamber Orchestra in December, when she worked with the Warwick Valley musicians on one of her own arrangements called Symphony Concertante.

“So, it didn’t hurt to have someone as amazing as her, who we had such a wonderful experience with and who is so admired by the Carnegie Hall people, put in a good word for us,” Ms. Maynard said with a smile, adding, “especially since we’d already impressed the judges .”

Carnegie Hall managed to identify some scheduling possibilities for this year, but they also demanded a second audition tape.

“So we did. We submitted another video," said Ms. Maynard, "and they were, like, ‘Oh, yea, they passed the audition. They sound great!”

Symphony Concertante is part of the program Ms. Maynard has planned. Coincidentally, Ms. Dackow’s piece has been officially published since its Warwick Valley performance, which makes the June 8 performance its published debut.

“She let her publisher know that the piece is going to be debuted at Carnegie Hall,” beamed Ms. Maynard. “They're super-excited. She’s super-excited. We’re all super-excited!”

Junior bassist Madison Buliung is one of the 84 musicians currently prepping for the big day. She said that she and her ensemble-mates are equally excited and nervous about stepping onto one of the world’s most famous stages.

“It's a very cool opportunity, because not a lot of people get to perform there,” she said. “And it’s, like, just our orchestra going there to perform. And it's also cool because we get to perform at the end of the concert, not just like an opening act.”

Tickets are on sale now, and you can use this Warwick Valley High School @ Carnegie Hall Ticket Link. Enter the code: FND49401, and 50% of your ticket sale will be donated back to the WVHS music program by Carnegie Hall.

“So, if you come see us on June 8, you’re also experiencing other top-flight professional ensembles, the beauty and history of Carnegie Hall, and a portion of ticket sales comes back to support us.”

 

This is the program that Warwick Valley will be performing.

 

WVHS Chamber Orchestra

• Darkened Shadows (Joshua Reznicow)
• Symphony Concertante (arr. Dr. Sandra Dackow)
• Symphonie Espagnole (arr. Todd Parrish)
  Violin Solo: Andrew Redling

 

WVHS Symphony & Chamber Orchestra

• The Dance of Iscariot (Kurt N. Mosier)
• Gravitas (Soon Hee Newbold)

 

Please join us in congratulating our WVHS orchestra students and Ms. Maynard on their accomplishment.

WVHS Symphony Orchestra Personnel

Violin 1

Sydney Becker

Grace Carter

Zoe Ham

Jayden Myruski

Olivia Peconie

Andrew Redling*

Isabelle Redling

Gabriella Romero

Sophia Sanzone

Lea Sit

Maeve Sutliff

Mia Trinceri

 

Violin 2

Andy Chen

Olivia Conklin

Lilyana Gallone

Kurtis Langone

Denis McAteer

Madison Murtagh

Abigail O’Brien

Willow Reid

Analin Rodiles

Leo Shostal

Grace Stough*

Kathryn Ronan

Stella Serafin

Viola

Anna Biondi

Caitlyn Coyle

Alyssa Cruz

Tony Grigalunas

Jaden Klausner

Autumn Levine

Aliyah Montgomery

Ayana Montgomery

Emerson Ryle

Ana Rukiqi

Samantha Santiago

Tristan Sasse

Amanda Sit

Oliver Tomich

Christopher Tyler

Tyler Vega

 Cello

Cora Colin-Green

Holden Corday

Carter Daciuk

Juely Duran

Carly Kunisch

Marios Veloudos*

Bass

Carly Freet

Michael Hansen*

Percussion

Michael Hickey

Timothy Leonard

 

WVHS Chamber Orchestra Personnel

Violin 1

Dania Barillas

Anika Brezina

Cavan Byrne

Nina Cirillo

Caitlin Moser

Andrew Redling*

Elaina Schlesinger

Sydney Stirpe

Grace Stough

Violin 2

Ava Cauda

Grace Cornelius*

Jane Cornelius

Isabella Costanza

Jolene Hernandez

Charlene Petreshock

Zach Polsky

Arielle Seid

Viola

Sophia Amato

Lily Burrows

Lillybeth Kurosz

Madison Lijoi

Victoria Martinez

Lucia Meehan

Angelina Nguyen*

Conner Price

Alexander Rodrigues

Jake Tannar

Cello

Zachary Brescia

Ashlyn Brown

Logan Conley

Gianna Crescimanno

Hailey Foust

Olivia Samberg

Jakob Yon

Bass

Madison Buliung*

Anya Campbell

Percussion

Michael Hickey

Timothy Leonard

 

* Concertmaster/Principal