From appearances by The Beatles to Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Carnegie hall is a world-renowned auditorium known for its incredible music performances. It is a place a musician can only dream to perform at, and for Staples Symphonic Band, this dream isn’t so out of reach.
On April 1, Staples Symphonic Band will have its debut performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Staples will be performing along with two symphony orchestras from Cincinnati and a wind ensemble from Staten Island in the National Band and Orchestra Festival.
Staples Symphonic Band is a group of passionate band members who take on more challenging music and work at a higher level. The class is instructed by Kevin Mazzarella and Katlin Serpliss. Symphonic Band has performed on many stages, but never one this celebrated.
“I was honestly really surprised,” Gargi Karve ’27 said. “When [Mr. Mazzarella] announced it, it was a really big deal, because only the greatest musicians get to perform there, so it was obviously super exciting.”
The band will be performing three pieces, “Across the Great Plains” by William Owens, “One Life Beautiful” by Julie Giroux and Gustav Holst’s “First Suite in E-Flat.”
“It showcases so many different aspects of ensemble playing, small section playing, everyone playing,” Mazzarella said, in reference to Gustav Holst’s “Suite in E-Flat,” “and it ends with this big cut time march, and that’s the third movement, and it has a huge bang.”
As the performance draws near, students share the stresses of pre-performance.
“I’m really excited, [but] I’m definitely nervous,” Maddie Leventhal ’26 said. “I have a mini solo halfway through one of the pieces […] it’s nerve-wracking to have to play that in front of a bunch of people, but the overall emotion is really just excitement.”
The Symphonic Band was given their invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall with very short notice and therefore have been pouring all of their energy into this performance over the past few weeks. As the concert date fast approaches, these musicians continuously work to perfect every part of their music. Even with the stakes raised for Symphonic Band, Serpliss has full confidence in the talent of her students.
“We believe that nothing can hold us back from putting our very best sounds forward,” Serpliss said. “This incredible opportunity will [be] a long lasting memory for the students and us alike.”
