Pamela Wright to Bring Students to Carnegie Hall

— by Deborah Sparks, Orcas Issues reporter —

Orcas Island is a Mecca for musicians and Pamela Wright, the veteran music teacher of 19 years at Orcas Public School, embodies the charisma and talent that keeps nurturing the island’s future musicians from elementary to high school.

Wright plays several instruments, including piano, violin, viola, recorder, ukulele, French horn and she sings, does arrangements and conducts. On top of her busy schedule of classes, student recitals and competitions, she took on musical director for Orcas Center’s production of Oliver! in 2010. Music, being a musician and teaching is what Wright lives for and her love of music is contagious.

In 2016 Wright heard about the Performance Honor Series at Carnegie Hall and nominated Paris Wilson (violin) as a possible participant in February of 2017.  Paris auditioned and made it in, along with 649 other students out of thousands that auditioned. Wright applied to be a chaperone (teachers can apply to be chaperones; only 45 are selected and Wright made it in). 

Then she nominated Paris in 2017 and again Paris made the cut and went to Sydney Australia in 2018. Wright also nominated TJ Liblik (viola) and he auditioned, made it in and attended the 2018 series in NYC. Wright was selected again to chaperone (TJ Liblik has been invited to attend the Performance Honor Series in London in June, 2019).

World Stride Company that produces the Performance Honor Series invited Wright to be a chaperone again this February as they appreciated her abilities to work with students who have come together from all parts of the country and who are meeting and playing together for the first time.

Although there are about 400 parents who attend, the chaperones are the ones in charge of the schedules and seeing that the students stay on track. The duties of a chaperone are a big responsibility: getting their students up and out of bed, making sure they eat, getting them to rehearsals, back to the hotel “and locking them up at night.” The 45 chaperones have daily meetings every day for the seven days of the series. 

Wright was quick to point out that there are perks, such as Broadway shows. “I saw the Lion King. The second time I went to New York City, I saw Sponge Bob – I didn’t think I was going to like it, but it was really good!

“We went on a cruise to celebrate the end of the Series.  The adults were downstairs socializing and drinking while the students were upstairs dancing. “Downstairs you could see the floor bouncing up and down from the dancing. I don’t drink, so I went upstairs with another chaperone and danced with the students.  It was really fun!”

When asked what was the most challenging part of chaperone duty, Wright looked anxious and said, “making sure all 45 students made it onto the subway train before the doors closed. That was scary.”

In February, Pamela Wright will be packing her bags and flying to the Big Apple. She loves NYC and it’s an exciting time for her even though she’ll have a lot on her mind and won’t be seeing any of her students play in the Series this time. 

So, students of music – how do you get to Carnegie Hall? “Practice, practice, practice!”