Charleston native Jessica Drake wants to make her dad cry.

Not tears of sadness but of pride during her concert with the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Wind Ensemble on March 28 at the 2008 New York Band and Orchestra Festival.

While she has played the French horn at many different concerts in her nearly ten year musical career, this concert is special for Drake, as it will be performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

The SIUC Wind Ensemble is one of two featured college bands that will perform a 45-minute concert at Carnegie Hall for members of the music industry and several different high school bands that will also be performing at the festival.

Christopher Morehouse, director of the SIUC Wind Ensemble, said this concert will provide students with a unique experience in which few others get to participate.

“For many of them it will be a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said.

Morehouse said leading the first SIUC Wind Ensemble to Carnegie Hall is “an absolute dream” especially since it will also be his first time performing at the hall.

He said the fact that they were chosen above of hundreds of other college bands to perform at Carnegie Hall shows the talent level of the SIUC Wind Ensemble.

“They don’t allow just anyone to perform at Carnegie Hall,” Morehouse said.

While he found out about the trip in October, Morehouse said he did not tell the band about it until recently to keep them from getting too nervous. He said they were rather surprised by the announcement.

“They were flabbergasted, but it’s all starting to sink in,” Morehouse said.

Drake, a Charleston High School graduate and junior music education major at SIUC, was one of these students.

She said the revelation about the trip stunned her because of how much of an honor it would be to perform at Carnegie Hall, which has hosted many of the world’s best musicians.

While she knew what Carnegie Hall was, Drake said some of her colleagues did not fully grasp the significance of performing at such a famous venue.

“A lot of them didn’t even know how big of a deal it is to go there,” she said.

Drake said her parents seemed to share this unawareness to the significance of Carnegie Hall to musicians. She said this was because to they were not as interested in music as she is, though she added they have always supported her participation in band and will continue to do so by accompanying her to New York.

She said since he is not as affected by the music as her mother may be she will have to work hard to get him to shed some tears over the music.

Even though her goal will be to impress her parents at the concert, Drake also knows the concert will have a big impact on her musical career.

“I think it will be one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had in my musical career,” she said.

Drake and the other band members are not the only people at SIUC excited about the trip to Carnegie Hall.

Jeanine Wagner, interim director of the school of music, will provide vocals for the Wind Ensemble at the concert.

Wagner said student/professor performances are common at SIUC and serve as learning tools for students that allow teachers to teach by example.

“The students really appreciate the fact that there are professionals there with them,” she said.

She said students are not bothered by the interaction and often learn more by performing with teachers.

Although all three of these people will have different experiences and duties at the concert, Drake seemed to sum up the feeling of them all.

“It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime,” Drake said.

Jordan Crook can be reached at 581-7495 or at jscrook@eiu.edu.