My Experience At Carnegie Hall

I still remember the day I fell in love with music. It was a dreary March morning in a cramped hotel room in New York City. Graphite-ridden sheet music concealed nearly every flat surface of my room, instrument cases scattered the floor, and anyone who walked past on their way to the breakfast buffet probably sensed my anxiety creeping out from the crack underneath the door. I had come to Manhattan with my school’s ensemble orchestra for the opportunity of a lifetime - to play my viola at Carnegie Hall. Arguably the most prestigious concert hall in the world, Carnegie Hall is a stage many musicians only dream of gracing. For an comparatively novice viola player like myself, I was barely able to fully comprehend how noteworthy the experience truly was.

And despite my apprehensiveness about spending days on end merely sight reading and working on technical exercises, I found the practice sessions far from tedious. Rather, I was captivated by the notion that anyone, armed with some auditory aptitudes and relentless practice, could create a career for themselves in classical music performance. Although I had always considered music more of an amusing pastime than my lifelong calling, I began to see my enthusiasm in another context. My actual performance in Carnegie Hall far exceeded my expectations; I was wholeheartedly immersed in every note I executed and entirely stunned by the alluring melodies we were able to project into the auditorium. Not only was I proud of my performance, but when I returned home from Manhattan, I had a newfound tenacity when it came to