GRANTS PASS, Ore. – The Performing Arts Center at Grants Pass High School has 730 seats. This March, the Grants Pass High Orchestra will be performing for an audience around four times that size at Carnegie Hall in New York.

“I’m super proud of them and super excited to learn the music with them,” Krista Debolt, the conductor for the group, told NewsWatch 12. Debolt signed the orchestra up last spring to try out for an international music festival at Carnegie Hall, and they made it on the bill.

The students in the orchestra are thrilled to be playing at a venue where most adult musicians don’t even get to perform in their lifetimes. 

“It’s something that we won’t get to do again most likely,” Einar DeVore, a GPHS senior and the principal violist for the orchestra, said. “Even our teacher is kind of jealous of us getting to play.”

With the show coming up in March, right now Debolt and her students are raising funds for the trip to the East Coast by selling food, raffle tickets and holding benefit concerts. The musicians, however, say the prep will be worth it ー especially for the senior students.

“It’s kind of like our last hurrah, especially as seniors moving into college,” Aydin Johnson, a GPHS senior and violist, told NewsWatch 12. “It’s a really exciting opportunity for us to go out with a bang at Carnegie Hall.”

The Grants Pass High Orchestra will be performing their New York-a-Palooza benefit concert on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at Grants Pass High to raise money for their trip to Carnegie Hall. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for students and seniors.