Wittenberg teen sings at Carnegie Hall

Schmidt gets to see wonders of New York
By: 
Miriam Nelson
News Editor

Not everyone can say they sang at Carnegie Hall, but one lucky Wittenberg teen has added that to her list of credits.

Seventeen-year-old Brianna Schmidt went to New York with her vocal group Bella Voce in March to sing in an a capella choir event produced by Distinguished Concerts International New York.

DCINY provides opportunities for singers and instrumentalists to perform in prestigious concert halls.

According to their website, they produced their first concert in 2008 and, as of 2019, more than 70,000 performers representing all 50 states and 47 countries have participated in a DCINY production in the form of 17 world premieres and over 200 concerts.
Schmidt has been singing with Bella Voce, a coed group of 16 members in Wausau, for a couple of years under the direction of Julie Burgess, a vocal teacher in D.C. Everest School District. They rehearse as a group once a week for two to three hours, but closer to performance time they rehearse twice a week. This is the third time Burgess has been invited to bring her group to a DCINY event.

As part of this international event, they got to join singers from Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain and Asia. It was a mix of people who did it for a hobby, to ones who were on the path to being professionals between the ages of 12-88.

Schmidt sang in a group of 300 under the direction of Deke Sharon, music director and arranger of the “Pitch Perfect” movies. They rehearsed two hours, twice a day, at the hotel basement. Other singers had solos or sang in smaller groups. All of the performers had been working on the same material, and the show was pulled together that weekend of rehearsal.

The day before the show, they rehearsed at Carnegie Hall. On March 24, they performed to a sold-out crowd of 3,000.
It wasn’t all work; there was plenty of time to do some sightseeing. Her father, Mark, went along on the trip. Her mother, Lisa, was home recuperating from a recent surgery.

“We got to see ‘Phantom of the Opera’ from the box seats,” said Schmidt, acknowledging that her father had to sit in the nosebleed section.

She enjoyed Times Square the most and remarked that you could tell who the Midwesterners were on the trip, because they came prepared and brought umbrellas for the rainy weekend.

“I know why they call it the city that never sleeps — horns and sirens are going off all the time,” said Mark Schmidt. “The taxi drivers are the best in the world — weaving in and out of traffic without a scratch.”

Brianna Schmidt is a senior this year, home-schooled by her mother, would like to go into cosmetology and pursue singing professionally. Just recently, she met with a producer and there is the possibility of producing a CD.

For now, she will continue to sing with Bella Voce. They perform at the St. John Episcopal church — they donate the hall and basements for rehearsal — and other venues throughout the year.

Schmidt might go again next year if they get invited back to New York.

“Maybe the show would be at Lincoln Center or Ed Sullivan Theatre instead of Carnegie Hall,” said Schmidt. “Radio City Music Hall would be great.”