Students, faculty perform at Carnegie Hall

Newton - Senior Patrick Hagen and junior Allison Mello of Kittatinny Regional High School auditioned and were selected to perform at Carnegie Hall in the all-eastern honors chorus as part of the American Choral Directors Association eastern division convention in NYC in February. Also selected for the all-eastern junior high honors chorus were freshmen Katherine Hoyer, Mercedes Harrod and Alysha Snook. Seventh grader Tess Oldfield sang in the Children’s Honor Choir. In addition, Joseph Mello, Kittatinny’s choral director, recently sang in a benefit performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Mello performed with his wife, Deborah, who is choral director at Randolph High School, and their children, Scott and Jennifer, both freelance musicians in NYC. The six Kittatinny Regional High School students joined approximately 400 other singers from 12 eastern states in the event. Students from Maine to the District of Columbia rehearsed in the city for three days before the Carnegie Hall concert. Conductor George Mathew led a specially formed orchestra and chorus in the performance. The event was organized to raise funds and awareness for the survivors of the October 2005 cataclysmic event in South Asia that left three million people homeless. Mathew conceived the idea of bringing together some of the world’s finest orchestral players, to perform Beethoven’s masterpiece in a politically neutral setting to help those suffering from the ravages of the harsh conditions in the mountainous regions of a stricken land. The work was performed with orchestra, soloists and choir. Players from numerous world-class orchestras, including the N.Y. Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Philadelphia, St. Louis Symphony, N.J. Symphony, musical ensembles, and students, graduates and faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard School, and Mannes College of Music participated.