Windham High School Band Astounds Audiences at Carnegie Hall

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The Windham High School Concert Band has proven that with determination, passion, very little sleep, and of course, practice, practice, practice, it is quite possible for a group of high school students to make it all the way to that legendary performance venue in New York City. 85 students from the WHS band embarked on Thursday, April 17, for the “big apple,” accompanied by dedicated chaperones and their passionate and committed director, Mr. Jared Cassedy.

In the four years that the Windham High School Concert Band had been in existence, this is the third trip that we have taken. The past three years we have travelled through World Strides Heritage Festivals, beginning with a festival in New York City in spring of 2012. We were awarded numerous honors and took home the most prestigious accolades of the festival, including an invitation to the Heritage Festival of Gold. The next year we attended the Festival of Gold in Chicago, once more taking the highest score in the festival after performing at the famed Orchestra Hall. As a result of this astounding achievement we were invited to apply to the Festival at Carnegie Hall. We were selected from a pool of over 400 qualified bands and orchestra and, this past weekend, took part in the festival. 

After arriving Thursday afternoon we prepared for our first activity in the big city: attending a performance of the off-Broadway production “STOMP” at the Orpheum Theater. Without uttering a word the performers put on a spectacular show, using common items such as trashcans, lighters, plastic bags, and even inner tubes to make music. It was the ultimate passionate performance, the cast of eight never missing a beat as each took on a persona, each gritty, organic, and unexpected. WHS senior and percussionist Timothy Raymond commented that the show was one of his favorite parts of the trip. “I could really appreciate all the things that they were doing the whole time, like ‘oh my God, I can’t believe you’re doing that fast a roll with those crazy street instruments.’”

The next day was packed from beginning to end, starting with water taxi rides to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. That night we were treated once again to a spectacular performance, this time the Broadway production of “Les Misérables”. The production starred actor Ramin Karimloo as Jean Valjean. Freshman Sarah Monahan says that, aside from performing at Carnegie Hall, the show was definitely her favorite part of the trip. Timothy Raymond describes it as “jaw-dropping.” By the end of the show there were very few dry eyes in the theater.

Thursday and Friday were gone in a flash before Saturday arrived; the day we would be performing at Carnegie Hall. We were all incredibly nervous but, despite lack of sleep, full of energy. Senior Alessandro Fabiano says that the best part of the trip was this very feeling of anticipation: “We’re doing all these fun things, we’re experiencing New York, but we’re also, in the back of our minds, [thinking] ‘it’s show time.’” 

After one last rehearsal in the morning we prepared ourselves for what would be the performance of a lifetime. The entire morning is quite honestly a blur in my memory and before we knew it we were in concert attire, boarding the bus heading for Carnegie Hall. After warming up we formed a line by the stage door and began to file out. Mr. Cassedy had told us beforehand to take a second and breathe it all in. We looked around in amazement at the rows and rows of seats, the gold and red velvet adornments, and the vast stage on which we were seated. From the first tuning note we could hear the difference the performance venue alone made in our sound as it expanded and blossomed, resonating throughout the perfectly engineered hall. Mr. Cassedy entered stage right and before we knew it, the concert had begun.

“It was incredible,” says Kaley Missert. “It was probably one of the best experiences of my life…it’s just so surreal, I can’t believe I performed here. Not only on the stage but I performed here with a ton of my really good friends,” she explains. The realization of where we were really performing hit each member at a different moment. For me, it was the moment the trumpets began the fanfare in the opening lines of our first piece, “Jubilateo” by Samuel Hazo. “For me it was just looking around at everyone’s facial expressions, the grins, the smiles,” says sophomore Cierra Cowan. Sophomore Mary Fennessey says one of her favorite moments on stage was looking up and seeing Mr. Cassedy’s ear-to-ear grin, the look of pride and sheer joy across his face. “When he smiles, it just makes me want to smile,” says Fennessey.

Director Jared Cassedy says that “this experience of performing at Carnegie Hall was unlike anything that I have personally experienced before. When we first stepped out on stage and saw the true grandeur of Carnegie Hall, it just took our breath away.”

The performance was truly like no other, and after finishing the first piece the thunderous applause that filled the hall astounded us: a couple hundred Windham community members had come to see us, and were filling the seats at Carnegie Hall. WHS principal Ryan Kaplan was one of the chaperones on the trip. This was his first real experience with the Concert Band and says “really all the stars came together today to just create an incredible performance…to see the number of parents and community members who made the drive, who traveled four plus hours, we packed Carnegie Hall. It was just incredible.”

For many of us in the band, the experience had a bittersweet tinge. After working and travelling for years with our seniors, this was our last monumental performance with the class of 2014. Senior Jacqueline Hoenisch comments, “we’ve been with Mr. Cassedy for seven years of my life (minus a year in the middle) so it’s kind of insane that we’ll no longer [be part of the WHS band].” Senior Sara Duclos says that she is overjoyed to have been a part of the band and have seen the immense growth of the group. “We’ve made so much progress over the years and I think it’s so amazing just how far we’ve come, especially since we’re a young school.”

It’s easy to see that we are not the average high school concert band. All the students I spoke to agree that what sets us apart is our phenomenal director, Mr. Cassedy. After we arrived at the hotel after the performance, chaperone Joe Consentino orchestrated a surprise welcome for Mr. Cassedy, ushering all of the students into a room not visible from the entrance. As Mr. Cassedy walked in we burst into applause. Consentino says that Cassedy’s reaction was “highly emotional, a complete surprise.” He continues, “you could tell all the kids have a tremendous amount of respect for the director and a tremendous amount of passion for what it is they do and that definitely translates into a very high-quality product.”  Sarah Monahan says, “I’m just really grateful to have him as a director because he’s just so wonderful and so incredible. He really pulls the ensemble together.”

Cassedy shared his pride in a brief spontaneous speech. “We performed not only as an ensemble, but moreover as a strongly connected family,” he explains. Nearly every student, parent, and chaperone gave Mr. Cassedy a hug as we filed out, most of us nearly in tears, still alight with that after-performance glow.

Our experience performing at Carnegie Hall is one none of us will forget. It was truly unlike any other performance, the memory of which we will cherish alongside our friends and families, always remembering the incredible sound we created when we came together to share our passion for music.