You've all heard the joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice practice practice! But that's actually false: the real answer is "book the hall and pay the fee". A little less snappy. I can see why that didn't make the final cut of that joke.
BUT! The big deal here was that we were invited to perform with the fee waived, which was a good enough offer to get us to come up there for a blitz of a weekend trip.
To start, I will show you the first Instagram picture I've ever gotten an in-person compliment on:
To start, I will show you the first Instagram picture I've ever gotten an in-person compliment on:
This was at our very grey arrival in New York. But now to jump back and go chronologically:
As with ACDA and several other trips, we did a halfway stop on the way up to perform a concert elsewhere before the main event. This time, it was in Lexington, VA, the town containing Washington and Lee University, who were also going to be with us at Carnegie:
They had this nice and fairly large combo art-and-music building, where the auditorium was:
We warmed up, changed, watched their set, performed ours, changed back, then waited around to be taken to the dinner spot:
Cool place.
We went to an Italian buffet and had a long dinner before driving a bit further north to the hotel. Did the usual hangouts and sleep, then hit the road the next very very drizzly morning.
It rained pretty steadily the entire drive and rest of the night once we arrived in NYC. Not a monsoon, but pretty substantial rain. A bummer. It mostly looked like this:
Whether you were in the bus or not.
Got out, got checked in to the very skinny but very tall hotel, then split into factions for dinner. We were on our own pretty much, and I hitched my wagon to the group headed for Chinatown. It was somewhat far away, and every extra block through the pouring rain made the journey seem that much arduous. We eventually settled on a place called Joe's Shanghai. This was not the only "Joe's ____" format restaurant even on that street in Chinatown. I don't know why.
It was a trip being there. Strong Beijing flashbacks from that area. Next, we went only blocks over, and were suddenly in Italy at a cannoli pastry shop:
Behind the counter was a massive cannoli easily the size of a human torso. We dubbed this the Holy Cannoli.
Next morning was free form as well, and I took the opportunity to sleep in a little, then walk around on my own. The hotel was relatively close to Times Square, so off I went:
Circled around a bit more, seeing Bryant Park and some other odds n' ends. Made my way back to the hotel to get my tux and whatnot ready for the big part of the day: our premiere at Carnegie.
We made the journey to the hall as a group, and got shuffled into the backstage area. Here's what a dressing room backstage at Carnegie looks like:
And then we went on stage for our sound check:
During the warmup, a lot of people got to go out in the audience and hear the rest of us sing, which I'm told was quite an experience.
With the sound check complete, we had the afternoon to kill, but we had to stay close to the hall. A group of us went to get lunch, then tour around Central Park:
As with ACDA and several other trips, we did a halfway stop on the way up to perform a concert elsewhere before the main event. This time, it was in Lexington, VA, the town containing Washington and Lee University, who were also going to be with us at Carnegie:
They had this nice and fairly large combo art-and-music building, where the auditorium was:
We warmed up, changed, watched their set, performed ours, changed back, then waited around to be taken to the dinner spot:
Cool place.
We went to an Italian buffet and had a long dinner before driving a bit further north to the hotel. Did the usual hangouts and sleep, then hit the road the next very very drizzly morning.
It rained pretty steadily the entire drive and rest of the night once we arrived in NYC. Not a monsoon, but pretty substantial rain. A bummer. It mostly looked like this:
Whether you were in the bus or not.
Got out, got checked in to the very skinny but very tall hotel, then split into factions for dinner. We were on our own pretty much, and I hitched my wagon to the group headed for Chinatown. It was somewhat far away, and every extra block through the pouring rain made the journey seem that much arduous. We eventually settled on a place called Joe's Shanghai. This was not the only "Joe's ____" format restaurant even on that street in Chinatown. I don't know why.
It was a trip being there. Strong Beijing flashbacks from that area. Next, we went only blocks over, and were suddenly in Italy at a cannoli pastry shop:
Behind the counter was a massive cannoli easily the size of a human torso. We dubbed this the Holy Cannoli.
Next morning was free form as well, and I took the opportunity to sleep in a little, then walk around on my own. The hotel was relatively close to Times Square, so off I went:
Circled around a bit more, seeing Bryant Park and some other odds n' ends. Made my way back to the hotel to get my tux and whatnot ready for the big part of the day: our premiere at Carnegie.
We made the journey to the hall as a group, and got shuffled into the backstage area. Here's what a dressing room backstage at Carnegie looks like:
And then we went on stage for our sound check:
During the warmup, a lot of people got to go out in the audience and hear the rest of us sing, which I'm told was quite an experience.
With the sound check complete, we had the afternoon to kill, but we had to stay close to the hall. A group of us went to get lunch, then tour around Central Park:
While we were there, a hip-hop flash mob wedding proposal took place!
What a day!
Headed back to Carnegie. Here's what the front looks like:
We got back in, changed, and went down to see the first half of the show, which featured other choirs, including Washington and Lee:
Returned backstage, then went on and did our set. It went well, I think. And now I can officially say I've performed at Carnegie Hall!
See, this is the thing. We do lots of performances. And we do a lot of performances of the same pieces and even the same program. And we've been in lots of nice halls in lots of places throughout the world. So while I'm on stage, while I'm in the building, it doesn't so much occur to me that this time in particular is so much more special than any other. I didn't get any extra nerves for this being a performance at the Carnegie Hall. But I know, certainly after the fact, that it's a big deal. So it's kind of paradoxical in that way. You may think to ask, "what was it like performing at Carnegie Hall?" and I won't really know how to answer. I know it's prestigious, but I'm not so cognizant of that while I'm actually on stage. For those moments, it's kind of just a gig.
I'm sort of meandering around and not having a real point. Okay. Moving on.
After the concert was the reception at The Manhattan Club, which I will go ahead and decide is a really big deal. It was swanky! Nice hors d'oeuvres brought to you by bowtied waiters and an open bar (for beer and wine at least).
Then a brief afterparty at some bar someone in our group found, then bed. Woke up the next morning and, believe it or not, went to church:
This was St. Thomas, which is apparently one of the few churches that uses an all-male choir (so young boys for the higher parts) during their service, and they do some pretty high-level music. They were performing a Byrd mass interpolated into the service, which is why the group that went did so in the first place. Also, it was a beautiful place.
Walking outside after the service let out, we happened to bump into a large group of other Cardinal Singers, who had just been to the MOMA. We joined with them for lunch, then split again, as half of us wanted to see ground zero, and half wanted to go to this place that serves cookie dough like ice cream (i.e. in scoops).
I was one of the ground zero-ers. Here's the great whalebone structure that houses the museum:
The big fountain that used to be the base of WTC 2:
And of course, the new and improved WTC 1:
It was genuinely moving being there. I had been to New York in March of 2001, and my family had had only enough time to go up in one tall building: either Empire State or twin towers. We picked Empire State, and of course mere months later the twin towers ceased to exist. I had been back briefly some time in maybe 2008 or so, but we hadn't visited this site. So it was my first time seeing it since 9/11 happened.
We didn't have enough time to go through the museum or do anything, so I will have to go back yet again someday. We had just enough time to stand at the fountain and take it all in. Then, just after 3:00, we made our way back to the subway and then our hotel to load the bus and depart. We drove once again though the night, arriving somewhere around 5:30 AM back in Louisville. This time, I did not get by unscathed. The lack of quality sleep and the dreary weather walloped me into a sickness that took way too long to recover from; a daunting prospect given how soon after getting back I would be giving a graduate recital.
What a day!
Headed back to Carnegie. Here's what the front looks like:
We got back in, changed, and went down to see the first half of the show, which featured other choirs, including Washington and Lee:
Returned backstage, then went on and did our set. It went well, I think. And now I can officially say I've performed at Carnegie Hall!
See, this is the thing. We do lots of performances. And we do a lot of performances of the same pieces and even the same program. And we've been in lots of nice halls in lots of places throughout the world. So while I'm on stage, while I'm in the building, it doesn't so much occur to me that this time in particular is so much more special than any other. I didn't get any extra nerves for this being a performance at the Carnegie Hall. But I know, certainly after the fact, that it's a big deal. So it's kind of paradoxical in that way. You may think to ask, "what was it like performing at Carnegie Hall?" and I won't really know how to answer. I know it's prestigious, but I'm not so cognizant of that while I'm actually on stage. For those moments, it's kind of just a gig.
I'm sort of meandering around and not having a real point. Okay. Moving on.
After the concert was the reception at The Manhattan Club, which I will go ahead and decide is a really big deal. It was swanky! Nice hors d'oeuvres brought to you by bowtied waiters and an open bar (for beer and wine at least).
Then a brief afterparty at some bar someone in our group found, then bed. Woke up the next morning and, believe it or not, went to church:
This was St. Thomas, which is apparently one of the few churches that uses an all-male choir (so young boys for the higher parts) during their service, and they do some pretty high-level music. They were performing a Byrd mass interpolated into the service, which is why the group that went did so in the first place. Also, it was a beautiful place.
Walking outside after the service let out, we happened to bump into a large group of other Cardinal Singers, who had just been to the MOMA. We joined with them for lunch, then split again, as half of us wanted to see ground zero, and half wanted to go to this place that serves cookie dough like ice cream (i.e. in scoops).
I was one of the ground zero-ers. Here's the great whalebone structure that houses the museum:
The big fountain that used to be the base of WTC 2:
And of course, the new and improved WTC 1:
It was genuinely moving being there. I had been to New York in March of 2001, and my family had had only enough time to go up in one tall building: either Empire State or twin towers. We picked Empire State, and of course mere months later the twin towers ceased to exist. I had been back briefly some time in maybe 2008 or so, but we hadn't visited this site. So it was my first time seeing it since 9/11 happened.
We didn't have enough time to go through the museum or do anything, so I will have to go back yet again someday. We had just enough time to stand at the fountain and take it all in. Then, just after 3:00, we made our way back to the subway and then our hotel to load the bus and depart. We drove once again though the night, arriving somewhere around 5:30 AM back in Louisville. This time, I did not get by unscathed. The lack of quality sleep and the dreary weather walloped me into a sickness that took way too long to recover from; a daunting prospect given how soon after getting back I would be giving a graduate recital.
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