The day was Friday, March 22, 2024, when eleven students, seven chaperones, two siblings, and Nederland Middle-Senior music teacher Liz Evans boarded a flight from Denver to New York City. The Loquations had been practicing a specific set of songs for months in school and at weekly meetings at CU Boulder. For what, you might ask? For the experience of a lifetime.

We set sail (or rather boarded a plane) and we were off to see the Big Apple. We arrived early in the morning and decided, “When better to explore than after a three-hour plane ride at seven in the morning?” So we took out our umbrellas and began exploring.

After getting soaked in the New York City rain, it was time to check into our rooms. We brought our luggage to our rooms and relaxed before our first rehearsal, which was three hours long. Then we got food and had a wonderful night of rest.

The next day we got breakfast and went to our next rehearsal, for four long hours. Although it felt great getting to prepare for the big day with all 208 singers, it was exhausting.

We were also given the opportunity to explore a little of New York City. We saw Central Park, Battery Park, the 9/11 Memorial, and the top of the Empire State Building. In addition to the landmarks we visited, we also went to see Chicago and & Juliet on Broadway.

Then came the big day – singing at Carnegie Hall. We gathered at the main entrance of Carnegie Hall to take photos with our poster. After a few laughs, we were led to the back entrance and up to our room. The huge elevator we got to ride in was definitely one of the highlights of this experience.

Walking onto the stage for the first time was an emotional experience. Feelings of astonishment, importance, and maybe a little bit of fear were all coalescing into one big “Wow!” There were no words for how beautiful the stage was, and how angelic we sounded on it. The reality of singing at Carnegie Hall was most certainly settling into everyone, so our sound check was a little distracted and fearful.

The sounds we made were so full and cohesive that we couldn’t decide whether or not we wanted to be smaller or sing out as loud as we could. Some wanted to take it in and not be so loud, and others wanted to be the sound. But by the end of the sound check, Dr. Swanson was able to assemble our noise back into the beautiful song that we had worked so hard for.

Before the concert we were able to recuperate in our little room, so a lot of us felt confident and prepared. As we walked out onto the stage, each row received its own applause. We sang our prepared songs and received more applause. The concert was wonderful!

Thank you to everyone who participated in making this happen, and thank you all for reading!