Rider’s orchestra was selected not once but twice to play at Carnegie Hall in New York City. 

During 2020, Rider’s orchestra first auditioned and was selected to be the only public school to perform at Carnegie Hall. That was until COVID hit and the orchestra unfortunately could not attend the trip. 

The directors at Carnegie told the orchestra that they could come again next year, but NYC was still shut down, so they had to reaudition for a second time. 

“This was like the longest process of all time,” orchestra director Loy Studer said.

Rider was finally selected again to go to Carnegie in June as the only public high school this time around, and after two years of problems, they were able to go and play.  

“Opportunities like this don’t come by very often, and that we not only were offered a second chance, but seized this opportunity and proved our talent says a lot about our group,” orchestra junior Jun Park said.

Rider’s orchestra came up to school for the whole spring semester preparing and practicing their songs for the upcoming concert.

In order to go to Carnegie Hall, the orchestra used Snap Raise, a fundraising program, to raise the money needed to pay for them to get to NYC.

Studer said many generous donations from people around the community raised enough money to pay for the entire trip.

Before the big performance, they had some fun in NYC going to a Broadway performance of “Wicked,” listening to a Philharmonic orchestra and seeing the Statue of Liberty. 

On June 16, Rider orchestra was finally able to play at Carnegie Hall to multiple standing ovations, one even during the middle of their performance. 

“I’m extremely proud to be in the Rider orchestra, it’s amazing to look around and see all of the incredible people and musicians we have there,” orchestra junior Chloe Bullard said. “Without each and every one of them, our performance in Carnegie Hall wouldn’t have been the same.”