In about two months, student musicians from Redmond High School (RHS) will have the opportunity to perform in one of the top performance halls in the country.

On April 24, the RHS Studio Jazz Orchestra will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York as part of the Ensemble Spotlight series, which is part of MidAmerica Productions.

RHS orchestra director Paula Ferguson said the series spotlights deserving ensembles, providing them with the opportunity to perform a 30-minute set at Carnegie Hall.

The RHS ensemble will be part of a larger concert that will feature two other groups.

There will be 51 RHS musicians of all grades traveling across the country this spring — 32 strings students and 19 members of the school’s jazz band.

In addition to Ferguson, RHS band director Andy Robertson will be traveling to New York with the group.

While this will be Ferguson’s third time  bringing students to Carnegie Hall — her previous trips were in 2009 with the RHS chamber orchestra and 2013 with the Mustang symphony orchestra — this will be Robertson’s first time.

He said the closest he has been to Carnegie Hall is “standing outside, looking at the door.”

“So I’m really excited to play,” Robertson said about this upcoming opportunity. “I’m excited. It’s a little daunting to perform in Carnegie Hall.”

Although this will be her third time on the famed stage, Ferguson said it is still an exciting opportunity.

“It’s pretty amazing when you walk out on the stage at Carnegie Hall,” she said.

According to a Redmond Band and Orchestra Boosters press release, Ferguson added, “Preparing for the ‘perfect’ performance at such an iconic venue as Carnegie Hall is a lot of hard work. Arriving at Carnegie is an interesting experience. When you see our poster, blown up large like the other professional groups coming to perform — that’s when the enormity of the upcoming performance actually hits you.”

For this year’s performance, the release states that Ferguson thought that it would be fun to share the stage with Robertson and his jazz musicians. Robertson accepted the invitation.

“For the past several years, the orchestras and jazz band have shared a winter concert,” he said in the release. “We started combining the groups in the fashion of the studio orchestra that is seen at the Oscars or Emmys. It is such a great and different performance experience for the students.”

In addition, Robertson said he has seen how playing at Carnegie Hall has changed Ferguson’s students when they return home. He said he would like his students to have the same experience.

Ferguson agreed that the trip changes people. She said “it’s great fun” and trips such as this one to New York are totally different from what her students typically experience — especially as they are traveling without their parents or family. She said it is a team-building experience and her students rise to perform in such a prestigious venue.

In order to be part of the Ensemble Spotlight series, groups must pass an audition but in the release, Ferguson said RHS orchestras were issued a standing invitation to perform.

“After our 2013 performance,” she said in the release, “the general director of MidAmerica Productions informed me that due to the quality of the RHS orchestras, we were welcome to come and perform through their productions any time we wanted. No audition was necessary.”

But being offered an invitation was just one step in getting to New York.

In addition to the students traveling to the Big Apple, their instruments have to make it over, as well. But this is not an easy feat, especially with bigger instruments such as a standup bass.

Ferguson said when traveling as a group of musicians, there are two options when it comes to instruments. She said they can either ship their instruments to the location or they can rent instruments in the city.

When Ferguson traveled with her orchestra students to Disneyland last year, she said they shipped their instruments. But New York is much further and shipping instruments to the East Coast is much more expensive, so they will be renting instruments — anything they cannot bring as a carry-on item — when they get there.

To help pay for these rental fees, members of the RHS Studio Jazz Orchestra will host a Spring Swing Dance from 7-9 p.m. tomorrow at the Redmond Senior Center (RSC).

Tickets for the dance are $20 and include light refreshments. They can be requested through RedmondBand@hotmail.com. More information is available at www.redmondorchestras.org. Dancers of all ages are invited to attend.

Ferguson said they will play three sets, with the jazz band opening and closing the night and the orchestra performing the middle set. In New York, both groups will be performing together but the stage at the RSC is not large enough to accommodate everyone, which is why they are performing separate sets.

Despite its name, tomorrow’s event will feature a variety of musical styles. There will be big band music, waltzes and even the tango, Ferguson said.

April’s performance will not be the first time the RHS orchestra and jazz band groups have performed together.

Robertson said about five or six years ago, for scheduling purposes, the groups combined their winter concert and collaborated on a piece for the performance. They now do that every year. The songs they perform are usually published pieces or Robertson or a friend of Ferguson will arrange a piece for the group. Robertson said the groups will typically rehearse separately but as they get closer to performance time, they will schedule rehearsals before or after school or his jazz band students will sit in with Ferguson’s orchestra group.

Robertson said he and Ferguson and their two groups collaborate well and when they come together, they usually only have to work on balancing their volume and blending the sound.