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UNO's Derrick Fox, Choral Students Bring Melodies to Famed Carnegie Hall

  • published: 2023/04/19
  • contact: Brandon Bartling - Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications
  • email: unonews@unomaha.edu

Music can invoke strong emotions, but the melodies alone cannot compare to the emotions stirred by performing them on the big stage and under the bright lights of one of the world’s most prestigious concert venues.

Derrick Fox, DMA, director of choral activities and distinguished associate professor of music at UNO, received an invitation from Manhattan Concert Productions to participate in the concert of a lifetime: to lead a choir comprised of singers from all over the nation in a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

The opportunity to perform in such a venue under Fox’s direction sparked interest from performers nationwide. More than 250 choral students from a handful of states, including Nebraska, joined him on the stage. The ensemble performed six pieces on the Carnegie Hall stage in late March in the experience of a lifetime.

Any Nebraskans who joined in the trip had a connection to UNO including current students, alumni working in area school districts, and K-12 students who had performed with Fox in the past. Through fundraising efforts and sponsorships, UNO’s School of Music was able to help support students by ensuring the trip was no financial burden.

Andie Rodriguez, a junior at UNO and choral librarian in the School of Music, took an unexpected path to the Carnegie Hall stage. She had participated in honor choirs since middle school but was undeclared as she arrived at UNO. On orientation day, Andie’s mother saw her eyes light up when she saw the Strauss Performing Arts Center. The next thing she knew, she was declaring music as her major and mentoring younger students leading up to the big performance in New York City.

“All of the music faculty never really judge you from where you come from. They want you to be better than you were before,” Rodriguez said. “To go from being in a middle school honor choir where I didn’t know how to read sheet music to being in college and performing at Carnegie Hall – thinking about that process is so honoring for me to know that my musicianship has made it this far.”

Earlier this year, KETV reported on how Dr. Fox, his daughter Avery, and UNO students were preparing for this opportunity. See the full story, with video of rehearsals, on KETV.com.

"To go from being in a middle school honor choir where I didn’t know how to read sheet music to being in college and performing at Carnegie Hall – thinking about that process is so honoring for me to know that my musicianship has made it this far."

 Andie Rodriguez, a junior at UNO and choral librarian in the School of Music

Building on his partnerships with alumni and the Omaha community, Dr. Fox was able to integrate other local groups from outside UNO in the performance, including students from the Omaha Christian Academy and Creighton Prep.

Joanna James graduated from UNO in Spring 2022 and is now the general music and choral director at Omaha Christian Academy. James and her select vocal ensemble audition group, comprised of 18 high school students, were chosen to be part of the performance.

As a first-year teacher, James said that there were several emotional moments for her: Tearing up as her students rehearsed with Fox, seeing her name featured on a poster outside the venue, and watching her students take in the full experience. As they performed on stage, she saw the same passion and energy through music that Fox had instilled in her during her time at UNO.

“I wanted to be able to give to kids what my teachers gave to me, like this joy of performing and presenting and creating with music as the medium,” she said. “It was such a cool experience to see my heart and passion out there in my students.”

Rob Chesire, the vocal music director and chair of fine arts at Creighton Prep, had worked with Dr. Fox, taking turns instructing each other’s students and leading their choirs together in combined performances. With support from the school, 25 students, including 18 seniors, joined the ensemble at Carnegie Hall.

With so many seniors in the choir, Chesire said the experience provided an opportunity for many of his students to finish out high school on a high note. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their opportunities to perform together were limited. “Our whole job is to build community and bring voices together, and there was a time when singing in a choir was the most dangerous thing you could do,” he said. “They get to do that without fear again and in a venue like Carnegie Hall in New York City. When I got the invitation, I felt this was the epic finish these students deserve.”

The concert experience hit home for Dr. Fox as three generations of his own family were involved in the performance. While his mother looked on from the audience, his eight-year-old daughter Avery courageously took to the Carnegie Hall stage to deliver lines as part of a song about imaginary creatures. Avery and her brother, Jackson, had crafted the lyrics based on what other children her age had to say in reaction to different prompts.

“I can’t encapsulate it in just a few words because so many parts of my life intersected in that moment, musical and non-musical.”

Those intersections may continue long after leaving the stage. Fox noticed that his students deepened relationships amongst themselves and with K-12 students they mentored while also gaining confidence through performing and navigating New York City. He hopes that the experience was not only memorable but also inspires others to aim high in their goals.

“This is why representation matters, because I got to see people come before me who look like me doing this. It became a situation where it was no longer, ‘Why me?’ It was, ‘Why not me?’” Fox said. “I got a chance to pay forward the inspiration and perseverance that was instilled in me. Some students told me the exact same thing: Getting to see somebody who looks like me, who looks like them doing this gives them inspiration and instills in them perseverance to be able to maybe make this a goal for themselves.”