dCollegiateColumn r.ChrisChapman CollegiateChair

aCarnegieHall e xperience

The Oregon State University Wind Ensemble and Pep Band took a tour this last spring to New York City to perform in the historic Carnegie Hall and Greely Square. The experience leading up to the trip was more eventful than it needed to be, as is normally the deal with any trip that utilizes travel agents, airfare rate changes, extra baggage charges, overweight baggage charges, outrageous hotel room charges, etc. However, when we got on the plane, these dreary details were behind us.

We took a Thursday night red-eye flight out of Portland that landed us at the Newark Airport at 9:30AM the next day. Although quite sleepy, all the students woke up as we circled around the Statue of Liberty, and the buzz, which sustained itself for the entire trip, began. We got on the bus and drove to our hotel in downtown Manhattan, one block from Ground Zero. After we dropped off our luggage in the hotel restaurant, we told the students that we would see them the next day (the students’ luggage was taken to their rooms for them by hotel staff).

Until I saw the students in the hotel lobby later that evening, I did not honestly know if the trip was a good idea. They were not having usual college student discussions; rather, they spoke of their musical experiences that afternoon and evening. They had gone to hear the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Ballet Orchestra, the New York

Opera Orchestra, jazz groups at Birdland and the Village Vanguard, new music concerts, and, of course, the musicians at the various Broadway shows.

Each of the students talked about the opportunities they had after the performance was finished. Some went to talk to the brass section of the Phil; others spoke with conductors of the Broadway productions; some even spoke to the performers on the subway about playing (one flutist was so good, I offered him a scholarship to come to Oregon State. He considered it until he found out we were nowhere near Los Angeles).

The Pep Band performance, conducted by Dr. Brad Townsend, at Greely Square across from Macy’s department store, occurred on Friday afternoon. Once the band began playing, people from everywhere showed up to hear, continued on page 20...