Musicians to perform at NYC's Carnegie Hall
“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
“Practice, man, practice.”
Two Butler County musicians will be living that corny old joke for real starting Saturday when they begin practicing for their March appearance on one of the most famous stages in the United States.
David Choi, a junior clarinet player from Seneca Valley Senior High School, and Gracyn Danell Thatcher, a ninth-grade cello player at Mars Area High School, are part of the Young Peoples Orchestra (YPO), Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras' (TRYPO) advanced full symphonic orchestra, which has been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City March 31.
YPO is a full symphonic orchestra, including strings, winds, brass and percussion. Eighty students confirmed participation in the performance, plus there will be five YPO alumni joining them.
TRYPO students are generally from the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area and from as far as West Virginia and Ohio. While auditions are based on playing level and not age, most students are in grades nine through 12.
Rachel Howard, marketing and communications manager for TRYPO, said, “There were auditions in May and they have been part of the group.“The YPO is the most advanced orchestra, so Thatcher must be exceptionally good to be playing in this advanced group.”Howard said rehearsals for the performance begin Saturday.Thatcher, 15, who has been playing the cello since third grade, is excited to get started.“Most of the students are sophomores to seniors,” said Thatcher of her YPO peers. “It's a large deal to get in this.”She's looking forward to the challenge of preparing for the concert.“It's more excitement than nerves,” said the daughter of Valerie and Stephen Thatcher of Adams Township.Thatcher said the three hours of practice every Saturday will be no hardship as she actually practices one to two hours a day.Choi has been playing the clarinet since seventh grade.“I try to practice daily, to prepare repertoires for festivals,” said Choi who also plays in his high school's wind ensemble.
Howard said, “This is TRYPO's second Carnegie Hall performance. The organization first played there in 2015.”This time YPO will have the featured spot at the “Sounds of Spring” festival, performing for 30 minutes.Howard said, “Since there wasn't a lot of lead time, it worked best to pull from repertoire YPO is already working on for the 2019-20 season.Stravinsky's “Firebird Suite” was performed on the winter concert, so they'll start rehearsing it together again about a month before the Carnegie Hall performance,” said Howard.Howard said the orchestra will also practice Marquez' “Conga Del Fuego Nuevo” along with Markowski's “City Trees.”Michael Markowski will be attending the Carnegie Hall performance in New York City.Choi said, “There are some different clarinet solos in 'Firebird.'”“This type of immersion experience is so valuable to young musicians,” said Lindsey Nova, TRYPO's executive director. “Traveling while making music with peers creates a lifelong relationship between students and music in a way that few other things can.“One of our goals as an organization is to provide students with exposure to a variety of experiences and professionals beyond their participation in an ensemble,” said Nova. “The opportunity to actually play on the iconic stage of Carnegie Hall in New York City is rare for a high school student.”
Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras was founded in 1974 to provide music education and performance for young people to foster lifelong passion, appreciation, and support of music.TRYPO will serve more than 250 students during the 2019-20 season, through enrollment in numerous programs, including YPO, Wind Symphony (an ensemble of woodwinds, brass and percussion instruments), Percussion Ensemble (an ensemble of just percussion instruments), Symphonette (a string ensemble), the Youth Chamber Connection (YC2 coordinates students into small ensembles such as quartets and quintets), and YC2 in Chautauqua (a summer program with a chamber music focus).
Both Choi and Thatcher want to continue with their music after high school.Thatcher said, “I want to be able to perform and play in college and give private lessons, but it's not something I want to be doing professionally in the long run.”She said she plans to major in communications and perhaps minor in music.Choi, the son of SooJin Kim and Sihyuk Choi of Cranberry Township, said he intends to major in computer science in college and possibly minor in music.This isn't the first time Choi was recognized for excellence. In November, he accomplished a rare feat of earning the highest possible ACT composite score of 36.Only around two-tenths of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn a top score. In the U.S. high school graduating class of 2018, only 3,741 out of more than 1.9 million graduates who took the ACT earned the top composite score of 36.
