According to senior Zoey Zachek, the choir students were invited to sing at Carnegie Hall and are taking the opportunity to do some sightseeing in New York City.

“The main thing we will be doing is singing at Carnegie Hall. We will be singing a movement called ‘Calling All Dawns’ by Christopher Tin; it features the song ‘Baba Yetu,’ which we have sung here at Park for the past four years,” Zachek said. “They saw a recording of us singing it and we got invited. In addition to that, we will be doing some sightseeing, like seeing a Broadway show.”

Sophomore Ainsley Preston-Pepperell said the students that go on the trip will gain a multitude of new skills from top-notch conductors and will be making a name for Park’s musical program.

“This trip is important because it is a huge learning opportunity for us as students. We will be learning from a major conductor and getting a bunch of performance skills,” Preston-Pepperell said. “It’s also a great way to put our school on the map in terms of awareness for our music programs. Carnegie Hall is a huge platform for music, so that’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most of us.”

According to Zachek, the students on the trip will gain new skills from the conductors at Carnegie Hall and experience the unique culture of New York City.

“The intense rehearsals that we’ll have are sure to give us new techniques that will help us sing in the future. In addition to that, New York has an amazing culture rich with different forms of art, which is also very beneficial,” Zachek said.

According to choir accompanist Cynthia Scherer, because any choir student can attend the trip, it will be a great opportunity to work on the community and cooperation between students.

“(Students) will have the opportunity to learn a fabulous work of music and work together, because anybody can go that’s in concert choir or varsity choir. So they’ll be building some teamwork, and the opportunity to sing in Carnegie Hall is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Scherer said.

Preston-Pepperell said choir students held other fundraisers throughout the year to fund the trip. They chose to sell chocolate bars because many other clubs had successfully raised money that way.

“We do some fundraisers annually, so picking those was just part of our normal process, and then we added chocolate bars because they seemed to be very successful in the past when other clubs and sports sold them,” Preston-Pepperell said. “We also did a car wash, so a bunch of students went out and collected donations, and (for) anyone who donated, we washed their car.”

According to Preston-Pepperell, selling chocolate bars gives students who could not afford the trip an opportunity for a unique experience.

“The fundraiser was important because the trip is pretty expensive, and getting the money helps give people who can’t pay as much the ability to still go and get everything out of the experience they can. Also, it helps fund the choir budget if we end up with extra, which is always needed,” Preston-Pepperell said.

Zachek said while the fundraisers will not fully fund the trip, it will significantly reduce the price and give more students the opportunity to attend the trip.

“The cost for each student is so high it will only pay for part of each students trip. However we will be able to lower the price by many hundreds of dollars,” Zachek said.

The chocolate bars are still available and can be purchased at choir concerts or by asking choir students, according to Zachek. The trip will be from June 7 to June 11.