Crimson Bears take bite out of the BIG APPLE

NEW YORK - There is no curtain at Carnegie Hall, so audience members are privy to watching the musicians walk on stage, set up their instruments, move their chairs around and arrange their music on the stands. This level of informality makes the audience feel they are part of a backstage scene. Nevertheless, once the music begins, all sense of informality disappears.

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"I think it was Isaac Stern who said everything sounds better in Carnegie Hall," said Ken Guiher, the director of the Juneau-Douglas High School Festival Band, after his students performed there last week.

"For me that was the highlight - the sound that was generated by the groups," he said.

The sound was indeed brilliant, bright, warm and professional. One hears every instrument clearly, crisply. Sounds fill the room in a way most auditoriums can't replicate. One student performer reported that for the first time he could hear all the instruments playing, not just the ones next to him.

As the saying goes, you could hear a pin drop, and that is no exaggeration.

The Carnegie performance was part of the Fourth Annual New York Wind Band Festival, sponsored by World Projects. JDHS was selected with five other high school bands based on previous accomplishments and an audition tape.

The entourage to New York City included 51 musicians from JDHS, the director and his wife, a host of parents and siblings, and the tireless band boosters who organized the trip and kept organizing throughout the trip.

I was there to support my son, Alex, who is a percussionist with the group.

Carnegie Hall is as grand as you'd ever imagine it. The room is painted a rich ecru with fine gold leaf trim. The detail is ornate, carved in a baroque style, with scrolls, cupids, vines, horns, rosebuds, harps and wreaths rising up the walls and gracing the fronts of the boxes. The seats are plush red velvet and soft. Plinth blocks border the stage, which rises at least 100 feet. The ceiling is an oval arch. The stage floor is a deep blonde hardwood.

I've heard stories of performing at Carnegie Hall. My son's great-grandfather sang there in the 1930s and '40s. We located his photograph in the lobby among other performers, conductors and composers featured on the Carnegie walls.

The three pieces JDHS chose for their performance were: "Marches Des Parachutistes Belges" by Pierre Leemans, "American Overture" by Joseph Willcox Jenkins and "An American Elegy" by Frank Ticheli.

JDHS was second on the bill. Alex was first to walk onto the stage carrying his cymbals. Unfortunately, he dropped one of them, which sent a loud reverberating crash throughout the hall. The sound drew marked attention and the audience responded with a forgiving round of applause. Embarrassed, he turned and offered a short apologetic bow. Even mistakes are exaggerated in this acoustically rich auditorium.

Once the entire band was assembled and seated, the master of ceremonies introduced them and welcomed Guiher to the stage. Dressed in a tuxedo, he walked from the wings with his baton, stepped onto the podium and signaled the band to begin.

The music was close to impeccable. It was the third time I'd heard these pieces and this was no doubt the best performance.

The first number was upbeat, lively, a good welcome piece. The second was more elaborate and showed off the band's abilities.

The third was appropriate as a closing piece. "American Elegy" is a memorial to the tragic killings at Columbine High School in Colorado. It has a gentle, slow and sad quality to it. The harmonies pull at the heartstrings. The overall tone is softened by the French Horns, punctuated by the clarinets, flutes and piccolo.

In the middle of the piece, Dan Gaisford left the stage to play his trumpet from the wings. The sound in the distance was emotional and reminiscent of a spirit calling from heaven. A melancholy tone permeated the hall, straight to the bone.

When it was over the audience rose to their feet and offered a long, loud applause. It was the strongest reaction to any of the pieces.

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As a parent I was not only proud, but thankful that in this era of high school gangs and shootings, drugs and guns at school, that we live in a community where our kids have a chance to grow up safe and responsible. That even in Juneau, Alaska, if one practices hard enough, he or she might even have the opportunity to "get to Carnegie Hall."