On Saturday, January 27, eighteen student musicians performed at Carnegie Hall. The concert was an opportunity to perform in New York’s most renowned music hall and represent the school in front of a large public crowd.
Mr. Fabio Witkowski, head of the visual and performing arts department, approached Carnegie Hall in 2018 with a plan for a long-term partnership that would provide select student musicians and pianists from the Summer Portals program with the chance to perform at the hall.
While last year’s concert included a trio, all of this year’s selections were solo pieces. Yobin Kim ’26 chose Ysaÿe’s “Sonata in d minor, Op. 27 No. 3, Ballade,” a complex violin sonata full of tempo variations. Violinist Alex Lu ’27 chose Wieniawski’s “Polonaise de concert no. 1 in D major, op. 4,” a more traditional solo-violin piece accompanied by a pianist. Pianist Ethan Choi ’26, who performed Franz Liszt’s “Paraphrase de concert sur Rigoletto,” practiced at least two hours a day leading up to the concert and plans to use the piece in the future at competitions.
Auditions were open to all students taking music lessons at the school. The music department ultimately selected eighteen musicians.
Dr. Gisele Witkoski, instructor in piano, said, “Carnegie Hall is a place where you need to be prepared—you don’t go there for the first performance of your life. To perform there, you must have experience performing; even then, it’s nerve-wracking.”
The school hired a bus to allow interested community members to attend the concert. Dr. Witkowski said, “It’s an incredible opportunity, not just for performers but also for those who come. Everyone that was chosen has been working extremely hard, and they are very emotionally involved with their pieces.”
