2/6/2011 6:00:00 AMHard work taking Cleveland School of the Arts' Children's Choir to Carnegie Hall

February 06, 2011, 6:00 AM    

Photo by Gus Chan/The Plain Dealer

Choral teacher Diana White-Gould, center, takes members of the Cleveland School of the Arts' Children's Choir through their paces during rehearsal.

 

By Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer

Legend says that the great violinist Jascha Heifetz was stopped on a Manhattan street by a person who asked, "Could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?"

"Practice," answered Heifetz.

Which is exactly what youngsters in a classroom near the corner of East 61st Street and Outhwaite Avenue in Cleveland have been doing five days a week. They're preparing songs they'll perform in three weeks in the imposing building at the corner of 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in New York that is Carnegie Hall.

Are the choral students at the Cleveland School of the Arts Lower Campus excited about singing in the world's most renowned concert hall?

"I feel very honored to be part of this choir," said Michaela Mitchell, "because we get to perform at a place where everybody wants to perform."

Indubitably. Michaela, 11, is a member of the School of the Arts' Children's Choir, one of nine youth ensembles from around the United States that will sing in the 375-voice National Children's Choir on Sunday, Feb. 27, in Carnegie Hall's glorious Stern Auditorium.

The 26 Cleveland students won the chance to perform in the historic auditorium after their choral teacher, Diana White-Gould, sent a recording of her group last summer to judges at Heritage Festivals, an accredited organization in New York that teams with the Field Studies Center on school trips and concerts at Carnegie Hall.

What followed the Cleveland choir's acceptance last fall speaks volumes for the determination of students, teachers, parents and friends to see the New York trip become reality.

To reach the goal of $30,000 that's needed to make the three-day journey, White-Gould began raising funds with assistance from Ann Gillespie, a longtime board member of the Friends of the Cleveland School of the Arts.

White-Gould, Gillespie, the students and dozens of volunteers held bake sales, a spaghetti dinner and a magic show. They received a $5,000 grant from the Kulas Foundation.

Each student was asked to come up with $210 toward the $950 expense per child.

"That was an important part of this," said Gillespie. "People weren't going to just give [money] to them. They were earning it."

Students who couldn't afford the requested amount received help from relatives and churches. In all cases, White-Gould said, the students' families came through with the funds and/or volunteered.

"It's been amazing the way parents have stepped up and helped and really wanted this experience for their kids," she said.

In addition to the rehearsals and concert at Carnegie Hall, the experience will include visits to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Broadway show "Memphis."

At Carnegie Hall, the Cleveland singers -- from grades four through seven -- will join youngsters from seven other states for the choral festival, which also will present performances by the National Youth Choir, made up of high school students.

This year's National Children's Choir comprises choirs from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia (two), Louisiana, Ohio and Oregon, said Steven Keim, Carnegie Hall coordinator for the Field Studies Center, which has organized concerts for select bands, choirs and orchestras at the hall since 1991.

The younger choir will perform under the baton of Henry Leek, director of choral activities at Butler University. Anton Armstrong, conductor of the St. Olaf Choir, will lead the older ensemble of 13 choirs.

"Anton and Henry are big guns in the choral world, so it's a really good experience for them," said Keim of the 375 choristers.

It's an experience White-Gould envisioned as a way to challenge her pupils.

"I'm trying to expand the department and expose the students to a lot of different things. I want them to travel," said White-Gould, daughter of composer Dolores White and the late cellist Donald White, the first African-American member of the Cleveland Orchestra.

White-Gould told only one person at school about the Carnegie Hall prospect -- principal Andrew Koonce. The administration provided $200 for White-Gould and the choir to make a disc in the new recording studio at Cuyahoga Community College's Metro Campus.

"I was excited," said Koonce. "Diana said to me, 'We'll never make it.' She really underestimated our potential. I was probably a little surprised, but it was not unexpected."

Most of the expectations now rest with the students, who've been working diligently on the four songs they'll perform in New York. Among them is Robert Hugh's "And She Sings," a swing number with scat singing.

"Da ba dot da ba dot da ba dot doo dat. Dzot da ba dot," the choristers recited on a recent January afternoon as White-Gould plunked out the tune on a piano.

"The music is hard because you're used to just getting the words," said Morgan Goodwin, 10. "But then you have to get the notes."

Many of the students heading to New York still are learning to read notes through the singing method known as solfege (think do-re-mi).

Soon, they'll be singing on the stage that has hosted the music world since its 1891 inaugural concert, which was conducted in part by no less a figure than Tchaikovsky.

"To perform on the stage at Carnegie Hall will leave a lasting impression on our students," said Koonce, "and allow them to dream bigger."