UCA singers prep for Carnegie Hall
The Upper Columbia Academy Choraliers have been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City in June.
The 27-member high school chorus from Spangle was invited to perform by Jackson Berkey, a keyboardist of Mannheim Steamroller fame.
“My job as a music teacher is to get across a love for music; we sing for church all the time but to go sing in a performing venue that is world renowned is a huge thing,” said Curtis Anderson, the choir director. “They are very excited.”
While in New York, students with the private Seventh-day Adventist school will join with Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum, Nebraska’s professional chorale, in performing the “South Dakota Shadows Suite,” composed by Berkey.
The concert will be conducted by Berkey’s wife, Almeda, co-founder of the Nebraska chorale.
Anderson, who comes from a family of musical talent, said it was at a family reunion that the opportunity arose.
“I have a cousin who sings in the Soli, and I have another cousin who lives in Seattle who has a daughter who sings in the Seattle Girl’s Chorus. Almeda Berkey conducts both of those,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s cousin in Seattle commissioned Jackson Berkey to write a piece of music for the reunion and sent a tape of the family performance.
“Apparently, we sounded pretty good,” Anderson said. Anderson and his students, plus his sister’s chorus in Minnesota, and everyone else on the tape, was invited to sing in New York City.
“I’m 44 years old. I’ve sung in Notre Dame in Paris; I’ve done a lot of really cool things. But I never got a chance to sing at Carnegie,” Anderson said.
“To also take my kids is just unbelievable to me.”
The students have given about $500 each and still need to raise another $1,000 each to make the trip, Anderson said. The trip is not being sponsored by the school.
The students will host a benefit concert at CenterStage in downtown Spokane in February to help raise funds. The students also will be performing in area shopping malls over the next few months, Anderson said.
The Choraliers include sopranos Ali Duerksen, Sadie Gonzalez, Sacha Kravig, Elliot LaPlante, Kristen Milligan and Rhonda Prokopetz; altos Brittni Bryan, Kelli Kostenko, Emily Muthersbaugh, Stacy Ramos, Elle Seibly and Jenny Sloop; tenors Anthony James, Nolan Kinne, John Lubke, Armand Rabanal, Kevin Riffel and Andrew Vizcarra; bass vocalists Jonathan Gaskill, Scott Guthrie, Jonathan Schreven, Doug Wheeler, Levi Workman, Jonathan Woodruff and Michael Woodruff; and pianists Kaitlyn Fitch and Brendan Hay.