‘Opportunity of a lifetime’: Martinsburg choir group gets ready to go to Carnegie Hall

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. ( DC News Now ) — A Martinsburg choral group is busy tuning up their vocal chords.

The choral group has been invited to showcase their talent at Carnegie Hall in New York and they are making preparations for their trip.

The group said the invitation came from out of the blue this summer.

“Singing is a wonderful experience,” Kim Myers, with the group, said. “It is a wonderful tool for yourself, a great way to express yourself.”

But they made quite an impression on the internet when the famed Carnegie Hall discovered the Berkeley Community Chorus and asked them to come to the Big Apple to perform.

“Not everyone gets this opportunity,” Jeffrey Poland, music director for the chorus, said. “So we’re quite fortunate and very excited.”

It is, indeed, a source of pride for the choral group to showcase their talent in the glow of Manhattan’s bright lights.

“Martinsburg is a very small town in West Virginia so it will be nice to put our name out there,” Chelsea Barker of the community chorus, said.

The chorus president, Drew Catrow, said the visit to Carnegie Hall is going to be “the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“It’s going to be exciting to look out and see people in New York coming to see us sing,” Catrow said.

The weeks ahead will be busy with rehearsals and raising $40,000 for the trip from community and corporate sponsors.

Anyone looking to support their trip to New York City may click here to visit the community choir website.

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