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Weekend in New York: Carnegie Hall, St. Patrick’s Day, the Brooklyn Bridge


Executive summary:
  •     Donna and Kate sang at Carnegie Hall!
  •     We met up with old friends
  •     St. Patrick’s Day fun
  •     My first NYC subway ride and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

 
Carnegie Hall
On St. Patrick’s Day, Donna and Kate, both alumnae of St. Mary’s College (SMC) in South Bend, Indiana, performed in Carnegie Hall in New York with a choir comprised of the school’s current women’s choir, alums of that choir, and choirs that are directed by SMC choir alums. In all, 250 women performed, under the baton, as they say, of Dr. Nancy Menk, the choir’s director for 35 years, and accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra.

The singers had gotten the music months ago so they could learn it. Dr. Menk sent links to YouTube videos of the songs being performed and detailed notations for pronunciation, breathing, and technical matters way over my pay grade. Then, once the singers arrived in New York, rigorous rehearsals were held all day Friday and Saturday and on Sunday morning before the 2:00 p.m. performance to further polish.

The result: The performance was magnificent, uplifting, breathtaking. It was incredible to see my wife and daughter up on the stage where so many other great artists had performed, and to hear them as their voices blended with so many others to create music that was precise, clear, and brilliant. It was a performance I, and certainly they, will never forget.

Meeting up with old friends
Kate and Donna had taken a Bolt bus up on Thursday, and Steve and I drove up Saturday morning. We stayed at a hotel just off Times Square, about 10 blocks from Carnegie Hall. Donna’s sister and fellow SMC alum Barb flew in from Detroit with her daughter and met up with her son who lives in the city. Our friend Monica, another SMC alum (who introduced us many years ago) also came. Our friend David, a New Yorker and Notre Dame graduate, also met up with us. David had known Donna and Monica in college and shared a house with me after college.

It was a busy weekend in New York, with the New York City Half Marathon early Saturday morning and St. Patrick’s Day celebrations all weekend.

Saturday afternoon Barb and her son obliged my desire to visit the New York Library because I had never been and wanted to see the lions, Patience and Fortitude, who guard it (we have a painting of the library in our dining room). We visited the map room, the main reading room, other research rooms. The ceilings are painted in the style of the Sistine Chapel, with strange scenes of people in strange poses in the clouds. The walls are ornate, with gilded filigree everywhere.

After an hour or so of that, and it being St. Paddy’s weekend, we headed for an Irish pub, and had little trouble finding one. Steve, who had stayed back to watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade, joined us for beers while the girls rehearsed.

That evening we all met for a grand dinner a few blocks from the hotel and got to catch up, gossip, and laugh, then ended up at the hotel bar for a nightcap or three.

The Brooklyn Bridge
Sunday morning I had my first encounter with the remarkable NYC subway system as we rode to City Hall, the starting point for the Brooklyn Bridge walk. Some years ago I had read David McCullough’s great book about the bridge’s construction and had wanted to walk the span ever since. A group of us made the walk and took a brief tour of the trendy DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). It was thrilling for me to see the bridge that John Roebling and his son Washington designed and built in the 1870s-80s, overcoming political, financial and technological barriers, and health issues that claimed the father’s life and the son’s mental stability.

We got back just in time to change and head to Carnegie Hall. When it was over, a larger group congregated at Rosie O’Grady’s, the famed Irish restaurant on 7th Avenue where Donna and I may have had our first kiss 38 years ago. Another grand meal with grand people in a grand setting, followed by another hotel-bar nightcap.

Early Monday morning Donna and Barb headed over to outside the studio of Good Morning America on Times Square. Donna has had a major girl-crush on Robin Roberts for years and was hoping Robin would come outside during a break. She did, and Donna got to meet her and get a picture with her. It was one of Donna’s highlights of the weekend.

After that, the remaining family members met for breakfast and a round of good-byes, then we disbanded to our various destinations. It was a weekend for the ages.

Here are a few more photos:










Comments

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