By Katie Servas – Editor-in-Chief

How did Jonathan Law junior Oliver Harrigan get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice, Practice, Practice!

This past week, Harrigan performed in the Honors Symphonic Band at Carnegie Hall through the Honors Series by WorldStrides with conductor, Jason Noble. This program prepared musicians worldwide to audition after their nomination.

The ensemble performed the following pieces; “Illumination” by David Maslanka, “Always” by Julie Giroux, “Lichtweg/Lightway” by Jennifer Jolley, and “Of Our New Day Begun” by Omar Thomas.

“It was so crazy to play in such a place like Carnegie Hall where everything has been fine-tuned to make all the musicians sound perfect and this experience was amazing,” Harrigan said. “Performing in Carnegie Hall felt very stressful because of the venue but after playing there I can say that I would never say no to performing there again.”

Harrigan auditioned for this ensemble after hearing about the opportunity from Jonathan Law Band Director Dave Pelaggi.

“I was approached over the summer by the company that put together the honor’s ensemble to see if I had students who fit their description to audition for this opportunity,” Pelaggi said. “Oliver was a great fit for what they were looking for, and I didn’t help him with his audition, I just nominated him to be able to audition for the ensemble.”

Harrigan was required to submit a video audition which required him to play multiple pieces of music. 

After hearing about his acceptance into the group, Harrigan was provided with a new music repertoire to learn for the performance at Carnegie Hall. To properly prepare for the performance, he would ensure he had a good grasp on each piece and that there were no sections he was struggling to play through. 

When the time came for the performance, all of the musicians met one another for the first time during a rehearsal before the performance. These rehearsals would include full run-throughs of each piece as the group has never played with each other before. 

“When the first rehearsal started, we started by running through our first piece and getting a glimpse of where we would be with the music,” Harrigan said. “When we started we were immediately able to play together with each other even though we had never met before.”

Playing a piece of music with a new group of musicians is important to see how the group plays together, and how the group instrumentation balances out. Being comfortable with the other members of the ensemble is extremely important, as relationship-building helps the group of individuals gel together. 

“I got to know the people who I was playing with and my roommates; this helped us to become more of a group and play better together,” Harrigan said. “Overall this was such a great experience, I got to know people from all over America and also play some great repertoire by some amazing composers and I even got to meet Jennifer Jolley.”