Maybe there’s a new answer to that old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall: be part of the Westfield High School concert choir.
Seventy-seven singers, including present students and recent graduates, will join other Westfield community members and artists elsewhere for a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York on Nov. 30.
As part of the Continuo Arts Symphonic Chorus and Orchestra, the WHS students will join along with the Presbyterian Church of Westfield's chancel choir and other choristers from around the country to form the 267-strong Continuo Arts Symphonic Chorus.
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A free, local preview of the concert will take place on Nov. 21 at the Presbyterian Church of Westfield at 11 a.m.
Candace Wicke, executive director and principal conductor of the Continuo Arts Foundation, said she has been familiar with the concert choir’s good reputation for some time.
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“I was pleased to have such a prestigious performance opportunity, a world premiere in Carnegie Hall, to invite this fine ensemble to participate in,” she said.
Still, to get to Carnegie Hall takes a lot of practice. To prepare for this concert, the ensemble has been rehearsing since September, according to Bill Mathews, choral director at Westfield High School.
“Having been to Carnegie Hall many times and never personally performed there, it is very exciting that my students will be on that stage,” Mathews said.
The ensemble has also attended master classes and some of the rehearsals have entailed traveling to as wide a variety of places as Miami and Nebraska, Wicke said.
The chorus will be performing the worldwide premiere of “A Carol Fantasy” by Stephen James Edwards, is a film composer whose credits include The Men Who Stare at Goats and one each of the Hellraiser and Children of the Corn movies.
The Carnegie Hall “Christmas time in the City” concert will also include performances by a number of other solo and ensemble artists.
“We believe that the lives of people are enriched through participation and exposure to music and the arts, Wicke said. “Intergenerational musical experiences provide an important opportunity to become more unified as a community by experiencing different cultures and backgrounds through music and the arts, becoming stronger individuals and making our community a stronger one.”
The concert is sponsored by the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel and the Westfield Foundation, with the program made possible in part by a HEART grant from the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
