City Students Shine Twice on the New York Stage

Members of the Glen Cove High School Select Chorale had a double dose of showing the New York area their talents last week after they performed at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan on June 5 and then at Citi Field in Queens before a Mets game on June 8. 

Under the direction of Ed Norris, the 50-member group hit the stage at the famed concert venue to sing with the Nassau Principal Orchestra. The chorale, school officials said, was one of only five musical groups to entertain concert goers that day. The students sang "Everything Indicates a Symphony of Instruments and Voices" by Gerald Custer and, administrators said, it was the world premiere of the song. 

"I direct a choir in an organization called the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra and we were performing the world premier of a piece and we needed more people," Norris explained about scheduling the chorale's performance at Carnegie. "I looked to my own kids at Glen Cove High School. They performed with a full orchestra and got a standing ovation. They did a fantastic job ... it was just unbelievable."

And the excitement did not stop there. 

Three days later, the students also sang the "The Star-Spangled Banner" just moments before The Mets faced off against the Padres. The performance, which was the group's first at Citi Field, marked the third time the chorale has sang for thousands of Mets fans. The students performed at Shea Stadium in 2006 and 2008. 

"Six years ago, we had to audition and send in a tape but now [The Mets] just ask us to sing," Norris said. "This was the best national anthem ever. There were about 30,000 people at the game and I'm very proud of the students, they did an amazing job."

"It went gloriously well," Nomi Rosen, the fine arts coordinator for the Glen Cove School District, said about the Citi Field performance. "The acoustics at Citi Field are so much better than at Shea Stadium."

Rosen also attributed the chorale's success to Norris's musical experience and leadership as well as his dedication to helping the young Glen Cove singers become exceptional performers. 

"Ed Norris is a phenomenal choir director who has the ability to work with huge numbers of children and take them to an amazing place vocally," Rosen said. "I always say his kids are ambassadors to the world because of their presence, poise and graciousness. They have made all of us in Glen Cove extremely proud."

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