Nine Carson City students invited to play New York’s Carnegie Hall

It’s one of the oldest jokes there is in the performing world: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? — Practice, Practice, Practice.”

“It’s true,” said Carson High junior Henry Sturm. He should know as Sturm is one of nine Carson City students who’s going to receive the chance to play at New York City’s prestigious Carnegie Hall.

The nine students are all members of the Reno Youth Symphony Orchestra, which has been invited to play Carnegie Hall at 8 p.m. Friday, May 27. Eight Carson High students will make the trip to New York: Eleanor Sturm, freshman, violin; Gabriel Covington, freshman, violin; Ethan Lopes, senior, viola; Nick Rosen, junior, viola; Henry Sturm, trumpet; Rylan Kane, junior, tuba; Nicholas Bowler, junior, trumpet; and Emma Rosen, freshman, clarinet.

Sierra Lutheran High’s Aleyna Gilson, violin, is also a member of the youth symphony heading to New York.

The nine students all had to audition to be a member of the youth symphony.

“Intense audition,” Emma Rosen said.

The students went through about a five-minute audition performing several pieces in front of judges who couldn’t see them and they couldn’t see.

“Five minutes to play and many hours to practice for,” Emma Rosen said.

During its Carnegie Hall performance, the youth symphony will perform the 1919 version of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, shorter than the original 42-minute version, but still more than 22 1/2 minutes long. The youth symphony also will perform Dvorak’s Slavonia Dance No. 1 at Carnegie Hall.

The trip came about as a result of the youth symphony’s conductor, Jason Altieri, who sent recordings of several performances of past Reno Youth Symphony performances to Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Hall invited the youth symphony based on those performances. “He’s amazing,’ said Kane about Altieri.

While in New York, the youth symphony will also perform in another concert. The students will be in New York from May 25-30 and will present its Carnegie Hall concert a Reno’s Pioneer Center May 21. The youth symphony will also perform the Firebird Suite with the Reno Philharmonic in the spring.

Carson’s students, though, aren’t obsession over what it’s going to be like to perform at Carnegie Hall.

“Regular performances are stressful enough,” Henry Sturm said.

But while the students may not make a career of music, they all plan to maintain a lifetime love of music.

“It’s something I want to keep in my life,” Kane said.

A fundraising raffle for the Carnegie Hall trip in which a diamond necklace will be awarded, will be held during the Carson City Symphony’s 32nd annual Holiday Treat concert at 4 p.m. Sunday,at the Bob Boldrick Theater in the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

For more information about the youth symphony, visit http://renophil.com/rpyo/youth-symphony-orchestra/.