by Everything felt vaguely familiar last night at the dress rehearsal for the concert tonight, but when they asked who had sung at Carnegie Hall before I didn’t raise my hand. Turns out, I have! While looking for the picture below, I saw that I had in 2015. I have only a slight memory of it and I can’t remember what I sang and with whom! God help me.
Even worse, I was looking for the picture below because one of the reasons I feel warmly about singing at Carnegie Hall is due to researching and writing about the 19th century conductor Frank Damrosch. Damrosch started a choir for lower income New Yorker’s called The People’s Choral Union. Then, because he wanted them to have the same opportunities wealthy members of choral societies had, he arranged for The People’s Choral Union to perform regularly at the then new Carnegie Hall.
Last night I was thinking the same thing, that it will be nice to sing there for that reason. And then to see that I already had sung at Carnegie Hall, that I’d already had that same feeling about singing where Damrosch (such a nice man) had conducted, AND that I’d posted about it all. Once again, TREMBLE young people.
After Frank Damrosch died, one of his students wrote, “the door to great things in music was not really opened for me until that year, when Frank Damrosch opened it wide for thousands, of which fortunately, I chanced to be one … Dr. Frank is our own hero. He was our friend.”
Here is a picture of The People’s Choral Union at Carnegie Hall.
Stacy, in 2015, we sang at Carnegie Hall in a concert of Two Requiems. We sang the Durufle Requiem and some other folks sang the Faure Requiem. Our choir was composed of various church and community choirs from around the country and your Grace Church Choir was asked to join, I think to increase numbers as well as expertise. A highlight for me was meeting you and buying two copies of Imperfect Harmony to give to my choir directors. I can’t recollect the precise name of the organization that put together the choir but it’s a group organized to bring amateur musicians to NYC for performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. It was great fun!
Hi Trudy!! NOW I REMEMBER!! And I remember meeting you!! Thank you for jogging my memory!! Ah, aging. And it was so much fun too.
Aging, true…but I know that I have had these lapses even as a much younger woman. There was the time when I went to a favorite shop to buy a little something for a friend’s birthday. I picked out a stylish pin and had it gift wrapped in a pretty paper but the wrapping paper from that store that I really liked was out of stock. When I gave her the present, she opened it and laughed! I had given her the same pin for her birthday the year before! But at least the wrapping paper was different the second time if only because the store was out. She graciously gave me the pin and when I wore it, I was always happy for our friendship and for the funny story.