How do you get to Carnegie Hall? You get invited to the National Orchestra and Band Festival, and our kids are going! The festival takes place in March in New York City, and all fifty-five orchestra members are going via Amtrak from New Orleans. A fund-raiser featured music by the Natchitoches Central High School Orchestra and Johnny Earthquake and the Moondogs for the NCHS orchestra’s upcoming trip to Carnegie Hall in New York.

A highlight of the Johnny Earthquake set was Andrej Kurti’s rendition of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” . . . pretty wild for a Serbian concert violinist.

This is the third time Mrs. Syll-Young Olson will lead the orchestra at national competitions in New York. This festival is for high school symphonic orchestras with excellent and superior ratings on the local regional, state and national level, with above average academic performance.