By Michelle Hu
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On Sunday, April 5, Carmel High School’s Philharmonic and Symphony orchestras performed at Alice Tully Hall in New York City’s Lincoln Center for the National Orchestra Cup. The performance was a component of the triennial trip that sophomore through senior orchestra members participate in. Symphony orchestra received a first place award with an average score of 97.5/100.

Going into the performance, director of orchestras Soo Han said he was not focused on the competition aspect. “I was just thrilled at the opportunity for the students to play at this historic hall,” he said. “We had some insurmountable challenges and I was astounded by the grace and professionalism that the orchestra students were able to project.”

Prior to the scheduled rehearsal, Han said, “the day started out so chaotic.” Carmel brought two orchestras, the first of which to perform came across numerous issues. “(Philharmonic) didn’t realize that they were going to have a choir dressing room for a warm-up situation. Minutes before their performance, cellos and basses still didn’t have their instruments,” Han said.

However, he also said he was impressed by the way the students pulled through the chaos. “If I had a morning like that, I could have never performed as well as (they) did today,” Han said.

Symphony orchestra performed soon after, though players resorted to conducting rehearsals outside due to a lack of practice space. The spectacle attracted city passersby but was the only way for the 130+ students to practice.

Concertmaster and senior Peter Hua said, “Mr. Han told us that if we had anything left (that we felt we could have done better) after the performance, we did something wrong. I think we really felt that today. We really just went for it in the music and I think we did a spectacular job in lieu of the many challenges we were facing.”

Judges granted a total of seven specific awards, six of which were awarded to Carmel students. Sophomore Molly Jones won Best High String Soloist for her harp solo in Jose Pablo Moncayo’s “Huapango.” Junior trumpeter Billy Graddy and junior trombonist George Todd won the Best Brass Soloist award, and senior oboist Miranda Cascione won Best Woodwind Soloist.

In addition, the orchestra as a whole won Best String Section, Best Wind Section and Most Original Selection. The only award the orchestra did not receive was the Best Low Strings Soloist. Han said that Symphony did not exhibit any solos for low strings (cellos and basses).

Han said, “We’ve never played these pieces in a hall with nice acoustics. All these faces just started coming alive. I don’t know how to wrap up (this day) in words.”