A Night at Carnegie Hall: The Junior High School Salute to Music

How many performers can say they’ve received a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall? On the evening of June 10, at least 350 New York City middle school students joined that exclusive club.

My family and I were in attendance for the 2009 Junior High School Salute to Music concert at the hallowed hall on 57th Street. This year the Bronx Borough-Wide Band performed, along with the Staten Island Borough-Wide Junior and Senior Bands, the Staten Island Borough-Wide Orchestra, and Staten Island’s RTC Kids chorus.

[Disclosure: My father, William Levay, conducts the Staten Island Senior Band; as an intermediate school student, I participated in the Staten Island Borough-Wide program and the RTC Kids.]

Judging from the smiles on stage and in the audience, the waves, the hoots and hollers, the enthusiastic applause, and the camera flashes (despite numerous reminders from Carnegie Hall staff that photos were prohibited), the concert was truly a special event for all involved. Playing movements of symphonies, marches, overtures, film music and popular songs, the students presented a virtual history of Western music – from Mozart and Beethoven to Lennon and McCartney. The kids, neatly dressed in concert attire, were well-rehearsed, well-behaved, and seemed to really appreciate this rare opportunity to perform on a world-famous stage. For the finale, the chorus joined the Staten Island Senior Band – 150 students in all – for a medley of patriotic songs.

The Salute to Music program, familiarly known as “Borough-Wide,” is a long-running free Saturday-morning music program for junior high school students (and sometimes late-elementary and early high-school students). Each borough offers concert band, orchestra, and/or chorus, and students usually must audition for a spot in the program. It is staffed by Dept. of Ed music teachers and APs. The groups rehearse weekly from October to late May or early June. Each year culminates in a spring concert, and the boroughs take turns performing at Carnegie Hall.

This concert has been a biennial event in my family for some time – my father, a 31-year music educator, has served on the Staten Island Borough-Wide staff for 28 years, and has conducted at Carnegie several times; when I was an intermediate school student I performed at Carnegie twice with the Borough-Wide band. My younger brother and my girlfriend also participated in the Staten Island Borough-Wide band.

The Staten Island center is housed at the George L. Egbert School, IS 2. The dedicated staff includes Douglas Barr of IS 34, Bill Levay of IS 24, Kristen Rodak of PS 55, Madeline Casparie of PS 35, and Vincent Moncada of Tottenville High School, the new center director. Tracy Rosenberg, a performing arts teacher at IS 24, directs the RTC Kids of the Richmond Theatre Collection, the lone choral group to perform at this year’s Salute to Music concert.

The center received some unfortunate press in the Staten Island Advance this winter after parents complained to the paper that their children were unexpectedly moved from the senior band to the junior band. The “cruel game of musical chairs,” as the Advance had it, was a solution to the logistical problem of having to divide over 210 students into two bands that would each fit comfortably on the Carnegie Hall stage. Nevertheless, feelings were hurt. The paper did eventually publish some subsequent letters from parents who had nothing but praise for the center and its staff. I hope the Advance will mention the Carnegie Hall concert, and particularly the excellent 90-member junior band.

Congratulations to the 350 student performers, their proud parents, and their tireless teachers!

Tagged: Bronx, events, middle school, music, Staten Island