In the music world, Carnegie Hall in New York is considered one of the premier stages for a performer.

And on April 24, 51 musicians from Redmond High School (RHS) got the opportunity to play on the world-renowned stage.

The performance was part of the Ensemble Spotlight series, which is part of MidAmerica Productions. As previously reported, the series spotlights deserving ensembles, providing them with the opportunity to perform a 30-minute set at Carnegie Hall. RHS was part of a group of three high school ensembles — the other two being a combined choir featuring schools from throughout the country and a jazz orchestra from Wyoming.

The RHS ensemble that performed in New York was the Studio Jazz Orchestra, made up of 32 strings students and 19 members of the school’s jazz band.

“The trip was fantastic,” said RHS band director Andy Robertson.

Robertson and RHS orchestra director Paula Ferguson accompanied the students. It was the former’s first time at Carnegie and the latter’s third time. Ferguson’s previous trips were in 2009 with the RHS chamber orchestra and 2013 with the Mustang symphony orchestra.

During their 30-minute performance, the group performed six pieces — two with just the jazz band, two with just the strings and two with a combination of both groups.

This year, Ferguson said she was not on stage and watched her students perform without a conductor.

“It really made me proud,” she said.

Both instructors said their students’ performance was great.

And they weren’t the only ones to think so.

“The applause as we finished the concert was deafening, and we all stood up, I saw people in the audience starting to stand up, and others whistling for us,” said sophomore violist Ailey Butler in a written reflection. “I couldn’t believe that we actually got a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall in New York, 3,000 miles from home.”

Upon their return, Ferguson had her students write a reflection on the experiences. A number of the students expressed their awe and appreciation for the opportunity — many noting how exciting it was to hear themselves play in a venue with such great acoustics.

“The best initial moment though was directly after we had all finished playing our tuning A, and how the note reverberated through the hall for a few seconds after we had all stopped playing,” wrote Megan Berry, a sophomore violinist. “Having never played in a place with such fantastic acoustics, hearing that note bounce around the hall left me awed and amazed.”

Her fellow sophomore violinist Rishi Mukundan wrote, “This is where every note had a lasting effect on the audience as well as the performers themselves. I’m not going to lie, the experience was a little bit overwhelming. But as the concert started, I started to get more and more comfortable, and started to play with more emotion. When the performance ended, I knew that it was totally worth the hard work and hours of practice.”

For Niamh Sheehy, a sophomore cellist, the opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall was more significant because her family has a bit of a history with the hall. She said her relative, Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington from the early 1900s, spoke in the hall.

“She talked about Ireland and the injustice of the Irish and in particular, women,” Sheehy said. “My dad and I are both Irish immigrants to America and both agree playing at Carnegie Hall felt like we were both living the ‘American Dream.'”

Robertson enjoyed seeing the students take in the whole experience. He said some of them understood the significance of the performance right away as they stepped on stage the first time for rehearsal, while it didn’t hit other students until after the fact.

“It was a lot of fun seeing their eyes open,” Robertson said, adding that a highlights for him personally were “the little things” like seeing his name on a Carnegie Hall dressing room.

In addition to the performance, the students went sightseeing.

Robertson said they broke into groups and some of the sights the groups visited included the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, local jazz clubs, Broadway shows and shopping. Chaperones accompanied the groups, as well.

“We had fantastic chaperones,” Robertson said.

In addition, he said the group met with a couple of the adults’ friends who work in New York as musicians. During one of these question-and-answer sessions in a park near their hotel, Robertson said a police officer approached him. Robertson thought they were in trouble for some reason but it turned out that the officer was in the audience at Carnegie Hall when the group performed and recognized some of the soloists in the group. The officer, who was also a musician himself, just wanted to compliment and congratulate the young musicians on their performance.

“It was very cool to be recognized by a professional musician, and off the street,” Robertson said.

Ferguson added that it was also great because the officer was a member of the New York community and did not know who they were. He wasn’t their parent, just someone who attended the performance and he recognized them outside of the hall.

“That’s what makes it so cool,” Ferguson said.