We Even Shook Hands with Former President Bill Clinton and John Travolta!!

Tuesday's concert was so much fun - I learned many new things about my fellow choristers I didn't know before. We had a lot of time to talk to each other and get to know each other much better in between our tech rehearsal and concert. When I went down that aisle during the concert, I saw so many excited faces in the crowd – there to see me sing, even though they didn’t know me personally.  I forgot what a big deal it was singing at Carnegie Hall until I saw how many people came to see the performance. We even shook hands with former President Bill Clinton and John Travolta!!

- Billy, Young Men

This past Tuesday, April 12th, Cantare and Young Men were scheduled to sing at the "120th Anniversary Gala of Carnegie Hall." As we gathered more information on this concert, we heard about all the celebrities who were going to be there, and got really excited. We all had to keep in mind that we were kids - talented, that is - in a children’s chorus from NYC singing in a concert full of celebrities. What type of celebrity would want to sing with us? Well, James Taylor did!! On our last rehearsal day before we did the tech at Carnegie, James Taylor made a guest appearance, and I think that made all of us feel really delighted.

When we went to our first tech rehearsal, we started performing, but were still getting warmed up and didn’t have our usual energy yet.  The only reason that I just critiqued myself more than usual is because most of us discovered, only half-way through our rehearsal of “Shower the People,” that Steve Martin and Sting were up on stage with Mr. Taylor! I couldn’t control my excitement, thinking about how much I loved the “Cheaper by the Dozen” movies when I was younger and how, though I’m not a true, lifelong fan, I did like the music Sting had on his recent Christmas album. Anyway, just seeing those fantastic artists got us pumped for the next day, April 12th, when we would do the real thing with a full audience.

The big day came, and we were all jitters, as usual. Why wouldn’t we be? The adrenaline was rushing through us, uncontrollable and unstoppable until we got out there, did our YPC thing (which everyone loved, by the way), and brought the house down, in my opinion. It was an incredibly memorable night.

No one can ever say that being at a YPC rehearsal is “ordinary,” because if you really stay on your game, you will have the opportunity to perform with incredible musicians, and that is an experience that no chorister can ever forget.

Maud, Cantare