The Cane Creek Middle School Band will head to Carnegie Hall in late March for the York Invitational Music Festival

The middle schoolers were invited last year but had their fundraising threatened by Helene

The festival is for student bands. The students get to perform on the Carnegie stage and attend classes with some of the world's best music teachers

The Cane Creek Middle School Band, in Fletcher, N.C., received an invitation to play at the esteemed music destination in the spring of 2024, but that was before the natural disaster when fundraising seemed more feasible. 

A collective sound captures the ear if you are fortunate enough to sit in on them playing their hearts out during practice sessions, and Adam Stewart loves every minute of it.

“It’s the energy that kids bring,” Stewart said.

Stewart is the Cane Creek Middle School Band director. This is his third year in the role.

“I think it’s just the community of it. You know, being in a band, in and of itself, it’s one of those rare things where the overall product is greater than the sum of all the individual parts,” Stewart said.

His students, like percussionist Nolan Provine, feel the same.

“How I feel when I play percussion. It’s just, I just feel so cool,” Provine said.

So do Trinity Earley and Zhessenia Carrillo, who each play the flute.

“It’s so cool. Just like work with everyone and just, like, hear like how like each person plays,” Earley said.

Carrillo honed in on the progress shared with peers.

“You just keep getting better and better. It’s just like, fun to, like, hear it come together,” Carrillo said.

It’s similar to how they felt last spring after receiving an invitation to play at Carnegie. 

“When we first applied, we sent in a video of their performance, of their MPA performance, last year as seventh graders, which, for those that don’t know, MPA is kind of like the end of grade test for band,” Stewart said.

A test they passed with flying colors.

In March, the band hopes to travel to New York City to play in the New York Invitational Music Festival at the renowned concert hall.

“We are the only middle school band in the country that’s going to be playing at this festival,” Stewart said.“We are the only middle school band in the country that’s going to be playing at this festival,” Stewart said.

“When I found out we’re going to Carnegie Hall, I was super excited. I actually didn’t know about Carnegie Hall until we were at the school assembly,” Provine said.

The festival is for student bands. The students get to perform on the Carnegie stage and attend classes with some of the world's best music teachers.

The announcement made at a school assembly in the gym put wind in their sails heading into the next school year until Hurricane Helene hit in the fall. 

Classes for Buncombe County Schools were paused for a month. Lives were put on hold. Schoolmates were apart, and the dream of playing at Carnegie Hall was up in the air.

Young Provine could hardly bear the thought of not beating on a drum.

“It just completely, like, ruined everything,” Provine said.

Band members Carrillo and Earley felt that disappointment, too, while trying to process what they saw around them.

“Anywhere you go, you can see just destruction everywhere and it’s just like normal to you now. Before, you would have been surprised and people would stop to look at it, but now you’re just driving by and that’s what you see every day,” Carrillo said.

Earley was concerned families needed to prioritize their own needs over digging into their pockets to fork out some money for a trip to the big city.

“I thought the same thing just because it, like, affected so many people. And like, with people having so much damage, if they didn’t like, if we didn’t have enough money to go,” Earley said.

All their hard work, time and effort were in jeopardy.

“Pretty quickly after the fact, [I] started thinking about, you know, what this meant for our program. I didn’t want to put any undue burden on our students’ families. I knew with the storm coming through, some of them were going to be in a very different situation,” Stewart said. 

The Cane Creek Middle Hurricanes couldn’t go to New York City for free. Fundraising is critical. Given the problems families could face at home, this band director wanted to approach the opportunity with thoughtfulness. So, Stewart went back to the drawing board for what to do next. 

He sent a Google form to families asking them how they felt about the pursuit of Carnegie Hall. 

The responses were resounding. 

“And overwhelmingly, more than 90% of our families came back and said, this is something we need to do,” Stewart said.

They needed someone who could oversee the accrual of finances. That’s where Sandi Boyer, a mom and the PTA president, came into the picture.

“So as a mom, I really wanted the kids to be able to do this,” Boyer said. She said her son, Hudson, a 7th grader, was fortunate to be a part of the band as well. “As the PTA president, my thought was, ‘OK, so how do we make this so everyone can go to Carnegie Hall?’ It’s a once in a lifetime experience for them.”

Boyer turned to outside corporations, nearby businesses and music lovers. 

“Music has healed a lot of their soul when it comes to the hurricane issues,” Boyer said. “Music has healed a lot of their soul when it comes to the hurricane issues,” Boyer said. 

The sound of resilience.

“I think more than anything, the kids just wanted to come back together, see their friends, and know that everyone’s OK and get back to some semblance of normalcy,” Stewart said.

It's a return to what they love and the chance to share it on a grander stage together.

“Mr. Stewart is an incredible teacher. I think that he inspires them,” Boyer said.

The Cane Creek middle schoolers don’t leave until later in the semester. If you feel compelled to donate, you can access the link here.