Teacher leads TD High Students to sing out a Carnegie Hall dream
Imagine standing here. Two TDHS students did on Feb. 6 with a lot of help from family and mentors.
By Tom Peterson with help from Victor Johnson
Shawn Lutz and Iris Cruz
People practice their whole lives to get to Carnegie Hall and never make it.
Carnegie Hall. You know, the literal epicenter of culture in Manhattan in New York.
It is described as one of the most prestigious venues in the world for music; “the acoustic crown jewel of American concert halls.”
It sits between Broadway and Central Park.
To enter this grand building and stand before 2,000 plus strangers under stage light and at the direction of a vaunted musical director… To stand, and put out your best voice, the music from the deepest part of your soul…
Would you do it?
It’s a big dream, no doubt.
And one fulfilled two weeks ago by two high school students from The Dalles.
Alex Rector and Shawn Lutz
Alex Rector, 17, and Iris Cruz, 16, took that stage as part of the 2022 High School Honors Performance Series on Feb. 6.
“I am kind of short, so I was in the front row in the very front of the choir and we walked out on the stage,” said Cruz on Feb. 16. “We got there and turned and looked out at this huge theater and all the people sitting there and we looked at each other nervously smiling and saying oh man, this is our moment to sing. It was so cool.”
The two girls have been singing since elementary school in The Dalles and were accepted into
this elite group is a direct result of the talent, dedication, and achievements demonstrated in their application and audition recordings, said their Music Teacher Shawn Lutz.
Lutz was also accepted as a chaperone for this experience and traveled with Alex and Iris.
The girls were given several pieces of music to learn about five weeks prior to flying to New York for the concert. The girls were to sing Alto in their two separate choirs for the program.
“We had to memorize seven different songs a couple of which were in different languages - Italian, some Celtic and Gaelic. It made it difficult,” Iris said.
“Our first piece was Alleluia,” said Alex. “Literally, that was the only word the whole time, which is not as easy to memorize,” as the same word had to be sung in myriad ways.
“It was written by a composer - not John Legend,” she said, laughing.
Lutz, Alex and Iris flew out on Thursday, Feb. 3, and then practiced with their choirs on Friday and Saturday before the concert on Sunday, Feb. 6.
“My choir was bigger than others,” said Alex. “We had 150 of us, and we were all just so different in my chaperone group. There were people from Texas, Wisconsin, South Dakota... There were all these people from across the United States and all with different accents. The pianist was from Korea. It was awesome being there and seeing different people and to come together to sing music together.”
Iris said New York “felt like a completely different world.”
“One of the things that blew my mind is when we went to see a Broadway Show,” Iris said. “It was the first time I’ve seen a musical done by professionals. We saw Wicked. The actresses come out and sing and you can feel it in your head and vibrating in your body. They tell you to feel your voice in your body but you don’t realize what that means until you see someone do it and feel it.”
Wicked made quite an impression.
On the day of the performance, Alex said it was inspiring to walk onto the open stage of Carnegie Hall.
“Everything was golden. And you looked around and there were white details on the flowers on the walls. The podium was golden. The ceiling had these beautiful portraits of angels and choirs and instruments detailed in gold; it was really gorgeous to look at.
The seating was all in red velvet and it looked like royalty could sit in those seats. And we’re just high schoolers from a rural town in Oregon. But we knew that we can sit here too.”
Conductor Jeffrey L. Ames directed Alex Rector’s group for the performance at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 6.
“I cried once I got off that stage,” she said. “I was in awe the whole time. During the performance, I looked around and tried to memorize everything, but I still had a job to do - the best performance I can do on this world stage. It’s something that people like myself could only dream of doing.”
And yet, she and Iris did do it.
They both thanked the people that got them there- teachers, parents, mentors.
“Shawn has been a great music teacher,” Iris said. “This is my third year of doing lessons with her. I did not know how to read sheet music. She taught me how. Now I am crazy to put my hands on whatever music I can and go to my piano. Reading sheet music opened all the other doors for music.”
Lutz said seeing her students perform at Carnegie Hall was the ultimate goal.
“Since 2019. I have had the privilege to nominate students to do just that. To see them experience the "big" city, work under top-notch choral conductors, and meet other musicians with the same goals brings so much joy,” she said. “Having the opportunity to chaperone 18 students out of 250 in the choral groups was an honor. I carry the torch for my mentor Lloyd Walworth who did similar experiences with students over the years.”
And you know…
“There is nothing like hearing a really good choir sing a capella in Carnegie Hall,” she said.
