Standing Tall at Carnegie Hall

Hailey Gurgul, a senior at Menomonee Falls High School, will be singing at Carnegie Hall on Saturday with the 2011 American High School Honors Performance Series.

“This is the first year that I’ve had a student audition and be selected for this type of group to sing at Carnegie Hall.  I want to congratulate her.  I’m happy for her to get this opportunity,” said Brian Scheehle, MFHS choir director. 

Hailey Gurgul was nominated and encouraged to apply to the Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall by her choir director.

The Honors Performance Series brings talented choir, orchestra, and band high school students from across the United States for a five day experience in New York including rehearsals with world-class conductors Dr. Eph Ehly, Mr. Charles Peltz, and Mr. Jeffrey Grogan, sightseeing in New York City, and culminating with a performance at Carnegie Hall.

On the same stage where the great artists of this century once performed

Carnegie Hall is a legendary concert venue in Midtown Manhattan.

“I had the opportunity to sing at Carnegie Hall last year during a choir field trip with the MFHS choir.  This year, I will be singing with students from across the United States in the American High School Honors Performance,” Gurgul said.

The choir will have three days to rehearse together in New York City before the performance at Carnegie Hall.

“I have been practicing the music for the performance since I received it in October.  I’m enjoying it because there are a lot of different variations of styles including foreign languages, jazz, classical, and church music,” Gurgul said.

The choir will be performing “I’m Gonna Sing” by Robert Hunter, and “Thanks Be to God from the Oratorio Elijah” by Felix Mendelssohn, among many other selections. 

“The structure of Carnegie Hall is so precise that the sound is so beautiful.  It’s a great experience to be able to sing there, where many famous musicians have performed before,” Gurgul said.     

Opened in 1891, Carnegie Hall was designed by architect William Tuthill, and built by the rich industrialist Andrew Carnegie and Walter Damrosch, a conductor and musical director of the Symphony Society of New York. 

“Carnegie Hall is shaped like a bowl that arches around, and it’s acoustically perfect so singers can project easily without using a microphone,” said Scheehle.

To avoid the need for steel support beams, it was built with cement and masonry walls several feet thick, which produced an excellent sound quality.  The acoustics of the three concert halls are famed to be excellent even without sound amplification. 

Over the years many singers have graced the stage at Carnegie Hall, including Placido Domingo, Paul Robeson, Montserrat Caballe, Luciano Pavarotti, and Beverly Sills.  Countless musicians, orchestras, dancers, actors, orators, social reformers, and politicians have also presented there.

Hailey discovered her voice performing in a school musical.

“I didn’t really know I had a voice until eighth grade when my teacher gave me the opportunity to perform as the Lady of the Lake in the spoof musical Spamalot at St. Mary Parish School,” Gurgul said. “After they heard me sing in Spamalot, people at my school and church helped me find other opportunities to lead our church in song as a cantor."

Hailey is the youngest of two girls, and her parents have supported and encouraged her to sing.

“We are incredibly proud of her accomplishments.  I am her biggest fan,” said Jan Gurgul, Hailey’s mother.

Singing is in her future.

Gurgul desires to keep singing and performing.  She plans to study nursing at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire or Lewis University in Illinois, and is thinking about minoring in voice or being in musicals and choirs at the school she decides to attend.

“I love singing, it’s my element, it’s something I really love to do,” Gurgul said.