Concert Chorale Heading to Carnegie Hall

For our Concert Chorale, the road to Carnegie Hall is paved through hard work and practice.

Through an audition process, the chorale was selected to perform at the revered venue on April 12. Thirty-seven Amherst Central High School students will be on stage with two collegiate and two high school chorale groups to perform three compositions by award-winning composer-conductor Jake Runestad.

Justin Pomietlarz, director of choral activities, said the group has been rehearsing since the end of February to learn the compositions. They will perform three pieces all composed by Runestad including “Let My Love Be Heard”, “Wild Forces”, and "The Lighthouse Keeper", a five-movement choral-orchestra work which is the headline piece of the concert. “The Lighthouse Keeper” is a series of vignettes capturing a life journey of joy, beauty, loss, and renewal. From a friend's death on Middle Palisade Peak in the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the excitement of a road trip to Joshua Tree National Park, to a magical midnight swim in the Spanish Mediterranean, to the loss of a loved one spiraling into depression and despair at Point Reyes National Seashore, to celebrating new beginnings at Yosemite National Park.

The group will be involved in 10 hours of rehearsals with the other schools. For some of the seniors going on the trip, it’s a return trip to Carnegie Hall as the Concert Chorale has performed there in the past.

Aside from the myriad of rehearsals, they will be attending "Great Gatsby" on Broadway, "Le Nozze di Figaro" at the Metropolitan Opera, attending a New York Philharmonic concert at David Geffen Hall, attending two Broadway Classroom workshops (freshman only) and taking a backstage tour of the Metropolitan Opera House.