By Marcia Moore
SELINSGROVE — The Selinsgrove Area High School Honors Choir is headed to New York City’s Carnegie Hall on Easter.
The choir, led by music director Katherine Bartol, will perform April 4 along with choruses from schools in Texas, Missouri and Wisconsin.
The 38 Selinsgrove students will be singing on stage with composer/conductor John Rutter as he leads the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and soloist Sarah Mattox.
“It’s an honor. We get to sing a great piece with the composer himself, which is a luxury not many ensembles get to experience,” said senior choir member Alicia Stranko, who plans to study music in college. “I am excited to follow in the footsteps of the famous people and important musicians who performed at Carnegie Hall.”
Senior Katie Richards, who plans to major in musical theater, is also excited about the upcoming performance.
“We’re doing something that not a lot of people, let alone high school students, have done,” she said. “It’s like singing for the world. Pretty cool.”
Under Bartol’s direction, the high school choir has performed on a variety of high-profile and prestigious stages.
It participated in the world premiere of Rutter’s Mass of the Children at Carnegie Hall in 2003, a performance of Maestro Rutter’s Magnificat at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the World War II Memorial Dedication Ceremonies in Washington, D.C. in 2004, the 400th anniversary of Jamestown in 2007 with President George W. Bush and Sandra Day O’Connor in attendance, an NBA Washington Wizards-Indiana Pacers game in 2008, and a performance at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 2009.
The upcoming Carnegie Hall performance will be at 2 p.m. April 4.
Tickets ranging from $35 to $95 may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, logging on to www.carnegiehall.org, or visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in New York City. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit www.midamerica-music.com.
