That Wylie Band is no stranger to performing at major events: over the past couple of years, the band has put on various marching shows at the Alamodome in San Antonio, concert performances at the Meyerson Symphony Center, and was invited to march in the 2022 St. Patrick’s Parade in Dublin, Ireland, which drew nearly half a million spectators. But this year, the band boarded their flights at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport ahead of one of their biggest events yet: a concert recital for the Premier Performance Invitational at New York’s world-famous Carnegie Hall.
“In terms of emotional experience, I was a little overwhelmed to play in a place so rich with history and American culture,” horn player Kennedy Ostoja (12) said. “It’s one thing to hear about the professionalism and opulence of Carnegie Hall, it’s another thing entirely to take part in that legacy. It helps that the hall itself is absolutely gorgeous, too; if you’ve never seen Carnegie Hall, trust me when I say that’s absolutely stunning. Even photographs struggle to capture the amount of detail and care in every nook and cranny.”
Having occupied its address in the middle of Manhattan for over 130 years, Carnegie Hall has hosted numerous famous artists, bands, and other concert performers, including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and The Wizard of Oz’s Judy Garland, as well as its fair share of composers, such as Antonin Dvorak, where he debuted the New World Symphony, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker, Swan Lake), who took part in the hall’s opening concert in 1891. In fact, just days before That Wylie Band’s performance, Carnegie Hall hosted the Vienna Philharmonic from Austria and Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal from Canada. Wylie High’s program for the concert was accordingly jam-packed. Wind Symphony, the school’s top band, performed “Comrades of the Legion” by John Philip Sousa, “Firefly” by Ryan George, and all four movements of “Symphonic Metamorphosis” by Paul Hindemith. Other works performed by the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, and Symphonic Bands include those by modern composers Steve Danyew, Randall Standridge, and Carol Britten Chambers.
“My favorite part of having the privilege to perform in Carnegie Hall was to hear our last note at the end of our concert ring out in the hall,” clarinetist Kaitlyn Chau (12) said. “It was just a really defining moment for me, to have just finished performing in one of the most famous performance halls and hear our hard work pay off.”
Beyond the performance, That Wylie Band members were also given the opportunity to explore the city as part of the trip. As part of the itinerary, the band attended Broadway performances of Wicked and SIX at the Gershwin and Lena Horne Theatres, took a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, and visited various neighborhoods in Manhattan, including Chinatown and Little Italy.
“I’d been to New York once or twice, so I wasn’t too surprised by the fast-paced nature of life there,” Ostoja said. “Actually, it was a refreshing experience, since everybody we met there was so no-nonsense and straightforward. Some people don’t like hustling through life like that, but I love it because I found that it left us with more time to do everything else.
“It turns out that traveling with almost every band student and their mother is a slightly different experience. For one, most people don’t realize just how much elbow room you have in Texas until you’re trying to cram fifty people into a subway car! The lack of spatial awareness was definitely annoying at times, but we still managed to make it everywhere in one piece…mostly.”
For other students, the environment of the city came as more of a surprise. That Wylie Band students visit Dallas regularly for their performances, including UIL-affiliated concerts that take place every year at the Meyerson Symphony Center, but New York’s sheer density contrasts heavily with the more scattered layout of Dallas.
“I did not expect to miss the Texas sunsets as much as I did while in New York, but you can’t really experience the sunset with so many skyscrapers covering the sky,” Chau said. “New York was definitely bright, but at the same time, all the buildings drowned out the city lights and sunlight, so it was a little gloomy. The city was pretty lively as every street was always busy, but it was more of a hurried rush from the people on the streets than people taking the time to admire the city.”
Still, the trip as a whole, from the opportunity to give a world-class performance on a world-class stage to being able to explore one of America’s most famous cities from such a unique perspective, left students feeling that the experience was just as they had hoped it would be.