MARLBORO — With the leisure time of winter recess in the rearview mirror of Marlboro High School students, participants in the school’s music program are counting down to a very special date.
In less than two months the school’s concert band, orchestra and choir will perform a 20-minute unified set at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The concert is scheduled for Feb. 29 at 8 p.m.
Atotal of 151 students will participate in the performance, according to Director of Music Patrick Dalton. He said the group consists of students from grades nine through 12 who play at a variety of skill levels.
“There are some students who are in honors level classes that require extra solo work and extra time on their own, working on higher-level material than the students in the lower-level classes,” Dalton said. “But every student, from the lowest level to the highest-level classes here, is participating in this concert.”
Starting in September, students practiced for the event every day in class, Dalton said. About 10 to 12 after-school rehearsals, comprised of all 151 musicians, have taken place in preparation for the concert, he said.
“We do all kinds of technical exercises to work on their musicianship,” Dalton said. “Basically, it’s their everyday music education that is preparing them for this performance.”
At Carnegie Hall, the students will perform Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” Dalton’s original song “A Gaelic Blessing,” and several other pieces, Dalton said. He said the other songs will most likely come from the selection of an upcoming school concert.
“We are working on a concert that we have in March and we are going to select basically what (songs are) going best, to perform at Carnegie Hall,” said Dalton, who has taught music at the high school for 26 years.
During the summer, Dalton said, he received an invitation for the students to perform at Carnegie Hall. Freehold Regional High School District administrators subsequently approved the students’ trip to the famed New York City venue.
Siera Rosen, a senior choir member, said she has been looking forward to the event after she heard the news during the first day of the school year.
Because the performance will combine the hard work of three musical groups, Rosen said the concert will be a testament to the excellence of the high school’s music education program.
Dalton said the school’s program owes its success to dedicated students.
“The program here has been strong for a number of years,” he said. “The students work very, very hard and it really shows that they do put in the effort it takes to perform on a high level as musicians.”
This is not the first time members of the high school’s music program will be taking the stage of a prestigious venue, Dalton said. Although prior concerts involved students who have since graduated, he said the high school’s previous shows earned the current students a chance to play at Carnegie Hall.
“We have performed at Carnegie Hall and at Avery Fisher Hall three times since 2005 and we were invited on the strength of those performances,” Dalton said.
Carnegie Hall’s acoustics will allow the students to reach their full potential as musicians, he said. He said musicians playing on one part of the stage will be able to better hear those on another part of the stage, thus forming a more cohesive performance.
“(The students) understand this is one of the top performance venues, easily in the United States and one of the top in the world,” Dalton said. “This is going to make a big difference in their performance and they are very excited to get there.”
Marlboro’s musicians will be joined by students from New York’s Sayville High School, Half Hollow Hills High School East and Hamburg High School.
Tickets for the event cost $50, Dalton said.