If you’re part of the Grand Rapids Symphony and Chorus, here’s how:

“We submitted a proposal, and Carnegie got interested in us,” [music director Marcelo] Lehninger said. “There was one specific program in the season that they really enjoyed, and they had a date available, and we could go there the week after we performed the programming in Grand Rapids. So, it was just all the stars aligning,” he laughed. “We said ‘you know what, let’s go now.’”

So a week from tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane for New York City, one of nearly 250 instrumentalists and singers making the pilgrimage.  We settle in Thursday, rehearse Friday morning, let it rip on April 20th at 8 pm, then head back home on Saturday — hopefully basking in the satisfaction of a job well done!

(And yes, everybody’s practicing, practicing, practicing these days.)

The two highlights of the trip for me: being part of the same program as the brilliant Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire (who’s performing Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Momoprecoce and Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain), and singing in the Symphony Chorus for the concert finale, Villa-Lobos’ Chôros No.10: Rasga o Coração (It Tears your Heart):  Check out this beauty below, as performed by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra.  The chorus enters about 7 1/2 minutes into the piece.

Learn more about the GRS’ Carnegie trip here and here.  If you’re in transportation range of Grand Rapids, you can hear the Carnegie program live this Friday or Saturday at 8 pm!

And stay tuned for on-the-ground reports from Manhattan, coming soon …

— Rick Krueger