There’s that old joke that goes: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.
Well, if you live approximately 2,034.8 miles away from the famed music hall in New York City like we do in Durango, along with practice you also need money.
Add 45 high school students and eight chaperones, and you’re going to need a lot of money.
This is actually the second go-round for the choir, said Director Petra Lyon. Two years ago, the group had auditioned for and was accepted to travel to NYC and participate with the National High School Choir in the Festival at Carnegie Hall in March 2020.
Everything was set – and then the pandemic hit.
“We were all ready to go; we’d just had our first big rehearsal to put all the music together, and Carnegie Hall shut down. I was just watching on my computer as everything shut down,” Lyon said. “So it got canceled due to COVID. And so I left our deposit with the company and said when all of this passes, we are absolutely going to do this. So, we are.”
But this time is a little different, Lyon said: The choir has grown. So now, instead of paying for 20 students and three chaperones, the number has increased to 45 students and eight chaperones.
“The program has grown, for sure. I started at DHS four years ago, and inherited a pretty tiny program,” she said. “We’ve just been working really hard to grow it, so there are a lot more kids in the program, and there were just a lot more kids interested in making this trip, and raising the money to do it.”
This is where the choir needs help: The original budget was about $60,000 for the trip; that’s grown to about $133,000 to take the much larger group, Lyon said.
How to help
Those interested in donating to help Durango High School Choir perform at Carnegie Hall in March may send checks to:
DHS Choir, attn.: Petra Lyon
2390 Main Ave.
Durango, CO 81301
You can also email Lyon with questions or for more information at plyon@durangoschools.org.
“While we got all our money refunded the first go-round, then we had some scholarship money and we refunded the kids that couldn’t go – predominantly seniors – and then we took the scholarship money that was given to them and we redistributed that to the kids this time that really needed it, and that’s all been really good and that’s been very helpful, but I just still have kids that are struggling to raise this money,” she said, adding that she’s written grants to make up for the new amount and has reached out to previous donors and sponsors, and the choir has hit the ground running in terms of fundraising – selling popcorn and looking for sponsors.
The Festival at Carnegie Hall is an annual event hosted by WorldStrides that brings together high school choirs from all over the country to midtown Manhattan, where students spend a few days practicing together and performing on the Ronald O. Perelman Stage. This year, the choirs will work under the direction of 2019 Grammy Music Educator Award winner Dr. Jeffrey Redding.
And for Lyon, money will not be an obstacle for any student who wants to go to New York for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“My thing was always money will never prevent any kid from going, we will always find a way for every student to go somehow,” she said. “That was the case the first go-round and that will be the case this time.”
katie@durangoherald.com
