This April, the Inglemoor High School Orchestra and Wind Ensemble will have a chance to play in a world renowned venue when they perform at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.
The groups are led by Orchestra Director Jim Rice, who has taught at Inglemoor for 13 years, and Musical Instructor Ted Christensen, who is also the Northshore School District music program coordinator. To them, playing at these two venues is the opportunity of a lifetime and an opportunity to showcase the musical talent coming out of the school district.
“Those two halls are considered among the world’s musicians to be the two premiere concerts halls in the world,” Rice said. “It’s a unique opportunity to play there. We just thought this would be a really neat opportunity for the kids.”
“I was excited and really pleased,” Christensen said.
“Specifically, because we knew that this would be a great experience for the kids, our students, and gosh this is one of the finest concerts halls in the world. Both of them are. It doesn’t get any better than that. I think too it’s a matter of what are your educational objectives. For us, up here, that seems to fit with what we wanted to do. It really is about enhancing what is going to teach the kids.”
The two groups received the invitation after they sent Carnegie Hall recordings of their performances. Christensen said it can be a challenge, for although he felt they sent it excellent audition recordings, the criteria used by the judges is subjective and unknown.
“I felt that the material that we sent in, the recordings we sent in were really strong,” Ted Christensen said. “This is a good program, as are many of our district programs. Yet there is still apprehension because you don’t know what they’re looking for when you do something like that. I’m sure they have standards of quality they want to keep.”
Not only did Carnegie Hall invite them, but they forwarded the recordings to Lincoln Center, which sent their own invitation shortly afterwards.
“I was floored,” Christensen said when he heard of the invitation to Lincoln Center. “I’m sure these folks bring in good groups and to get into that category is just exciting, particularly for the kids who work really hard all the way through our department.”
In 2013, the Inglemoor High School’s Orchestra, Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble won the Gold Award—scores over 90 from all judges at the Heritage International Music Festival, the Adjudicators Award—scores over 93 from all judges and the Outstanding Band Award—highest score overall regardless of classification.
Christensen said their performance at the festival encouraged them to audition for Carnegie Hall.
“A lot of those kids that were at the Heritage Festival, were either juniors or sophomores.” Christensen said. “But when you look down the road and you think ‘I’ve got these kids coming up into those spots,’ and that’s how you make a decision. And it looks like we will be able to take a really great group back there (New York).”
Despite the high status of the venues, Christensen said it will have no effect on how they normally prepare for a performance.
“It’s our plan to approach it that we’re doing this concert like any other concert,” he said. “We want it to be really good and focus on the music rather than the surroundings.”
In 2011, Rice was presented with the Northwest Division Distinguished Music Educators Service Award at the first general session of the Northwest Music Educators Conference (MENC) Friday in Bellevue. Christensen was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Hall of Fame in the Fine Arts category in 2013.
The performance at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center will also be a first for both Rice and Christensen.
“Clearly, I would hope that I get into Carnegie Hall for a concert someday, just to hear it, Christensen said. “To go there and perform is pretty outrageous. To actually stand on that stage and have a group perform for an audience is really exciting. As the coordinator of the music program, we have a lot of groups like this that are very, very solid, and that comes from a supportive community and supportive school district.
Christensen added that the groups are just two of many in the district that have met with success.
“We’ve got several groups that I think would have the quality to do this if they chose,” he said. “Our choral department goes to competitions and they come back with very good scores. This is the norm across the district, rather than the exception. We have really good music programs in this school district.”
