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Fitch choir having benefit show for Carnegie Hall performance
By Billy Ludt
AUSTINTOWN
Fitch High School Concert Choir submitted a successful audition for the chance to perform under Grammy Award-winning composer Eric Whitacre at Carnegie Hall in New York.
“I thought it was a total long shot, seeing as it’s an international competition,” said choir director Bill Klein.
It turns out, it wasn’t.
Fitch Concert Choir will head to New York in April for four days to train and perform with Whitacre.
On Aug. 6, the choir will perform at Woodside Community Garden, 4105 Elmwood Ave., at 6 p.m. to raise money for the trip.
Unfortunately, Klein said, taking all 50 members of the choir to New York is expensive. He said the kids fell silent upon finding out they were selected, and Klein was puzzled by their reaction. But they burst into excitement shortly after.
“It was one of those moments when you get to tell your kids that you’re going to do something incredible,” Klein said.
Woodside chairman Dale Basista contacted Klein before the community garden opened in May about a choir member singing the national anthem during groundbreaking. He said he’d like to make choir performances at the garden an annual event.
“I said to myself, ‘Hey, we have all this room out here, why don’t we have the Fitch Concert Choir perform here?’”
Half of donated proceeds from the Aug. 6 performance will go toward the choir’s trip, and the other half goes back to the garden.
Whitacre is a world-renowned choral composer, conductor and speaker. His album “Light & Gold” received a Grammy for Best Choral Performance in 2012.
The concert choir will be a part of The Music of Eric Whitacre, where the choir will share a stage with individual singers and groups from around the world. The performance takes place April 8 at 1 p.m. at Carnegie Hall.
Fitch Choir performed at Norfolk Veterans Base in Hampton, Va., last April.