Brooke Brehm of Hot Springs participated in the American High School Honors Performance Series, Feb. 16-20 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
“It was really amazing,” said Brooke, a junior at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts. “Carnegie Hall was beautiful.”
Mark Langley, her former chorus teacher at Lakeside High School, nominated her for the choir and she auditioned in October by submitting a CD of her singing “Think of Me” and “Ombra Mai Fu.” More than a thousand students auditioned and approximately 200 were selected for the choir, which presented a concert on Feb. 19.
While in New York, the students received recognition on “The Early Show” on CBS, NBC’s “Today Show,” saw a Broadway performance, and went sightseeing. Like many of the students, this was Brooke’s first trip to New York. She said she enjoyed Times Square the most.
“I took tons of photos of the Broadway signs and other advertisements covering the buildings,” she said. “I also thought it was neat there were stands for crowds to sit and just take pictures and watch other people go by.”
Although she is considering a career as a pediatrician, Brooke says she would enjoy singing professionally. “It would be really awesome if I could be on Broadway.”
While in New York, Brooke saw “Wicked” on Broadway. “The song ‘Defying Gravity’ gave me chills,” she said.
Brooke says her mother, Anna Roberts, tells people Brooke was singing even before she could talk. “I would hum along with the Barney songs,” she said. And, when she learned to talk, if she didn’t know the words to a song, she would make them up as she went along. She is a member of the ASMSA choir and also sings with the choir at First United Methodist Church in Hot Springs.