2003 Carnegie Hall Tour
It is the dream of every musician to have an opportunity to perform in Carnegie Hall. For 75 Cal Poly students that dream became a reality on April 3, 2003 when the Wind Orchestra performed
an evening "Showcase" concert as a part of the New York Wind Band Festival. Each year the World Projects Corporation produces the International Music Festival in Sydney Australia bringing in
musical groups from throughout the world to perform in the Sydney Opera House. As a result of September 11, World Projects decided to begin a new festival in New York City bringing in wind
bands from throughout the United States to perform in Carnegie Hall. Two university groups were chosen to perform the festival's evening "Showcase" concert, the Cal Poly Wind Orchestra and
the University of Tennessee Wind Ensemble.
Cal Poly's invitation came as a result of its performance in the Sydney Opera House in June, 2000, when it participated in the International Music Festival. In a recent letter received from Mr. William Lutt, President of World Projects, the following statement was made: "Over the years, the Wind Orchestra at your university has shown the artistic performance level necessary to be successful in a Carnegie Hall concert at the New York Wind Band Festival...."
Conductor and music professor William Johnson said:
"It's hard to believe that anything could top the experience we had performing in the Sydney Opera House in June, 2000. Our evening concert in Carnegie Hall was certainly on the same level and perhaps beyond. I am very proud of the student's outstanding performance.
Since the performance was just across town from Ground Zero, we decided to program a concert that would pay tribute to the fallen heroes and survivors of 9/11 connecting the life and times of Abraham Lincoln to present times. We began with Stephen Melillo's Without Warning and then brought out Kevin Shea to do the narration for Copland's Lincoln Portrait. Kevin arrived at the South Tower with his Ladder Co of 13 other firefighters. He is the only survivor and is recovering from a broken neck. His performance of the Copland was flawless and brought tears to the eyes of the many FDNY people in the audience as well as the festival attendees. The concert was concluded with David Maslanka's Symphony No. 4, based on two scenes about the death of Lincoln from Carl Sandberg's book Abraham Lincoln. We had just gone to war in Iraq, so our encore was the National Anthem."
