CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Twenty-five students from Rossview High School recently got the experience of a lifetime performing on one of the world’s most prestigious stages: Carnegie Hall in New York City.
After six months of practice and rehearsal, students from the Rossview Choir joined over 100 singers from across America to pay tribute to choral composer and director Robert Ray singing his Gospel Mass.
Students Makayla Fuller and Macy Izatt agreed it was a performance of a lifetime.
“For me, it was almost like normal practicing until we got there, and I realized where I was,” Makayla told Clarksville Now.
“Carnegie Hall, historically, is the place for music,” Macy said. “You’re a high schooler singing on the same stage that Ella Fitzgerald, the Beatles, and Beyonce sang on. It’s an insane moment to be on that stage at such a young age. … It’s just knowing that that legacy is on that stage, the same one you’re standing on.”
The New England Symphonic Ensemble accompanied the choir, giving the students an opportunity to sing with a professional orchestra. According to Kristina Waugh, lead music teacher at Rossview High, the performance received an overwhelming standing ovation.
“We were invited to perform at Carnegie Hall by my mentor and former coordinating student teacher, Jeanne Wohlgamuth from the Columbus Children’s Choir, who will also conduct this concert series,” Waugh said.
The Rossview choir sang Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass under the direction of Maria Ellis and alongside Blackburn College Choir, Que the Music Academy, the Maria A. Ellis Festival Ensemble, Missouri Baptist University Chamber Singers, the Community Gospel Choir of St. Louis, and the Sheldon City of Music All-Star Chorus.
The choir spent three days in New York in preparation, including around 10 hours of rehearsal, and they also got to visit attractions around the city.
Macy told Clarksville Now the union of all the choirs and the orchestra was unlike anything she’d seen.
“You get on that stage and every single choir, even though you’ve been rehearsing with them all week, it’s just the most united and loudest sound you ever heard, and the most beautiful sound, honestly. I’ve never heard anything like it.”
“I gave it my all, I did everything I could. Because when you’re singing at Carnegie Hall, you’ve got to act like you’re singing at Carnegie Hall,” Makayla said.