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Seventh Grader, Alt Rock Musician And Expecting Mother Come Together At Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall-Ivanne Cappelan

More than 70 singers, mostly from the Park City area, will perform at Carnegie Hall on February 16 along with more than 150 musicians from all over the country.

Asher Reppart will be 31 weeks pregnant when she walks onto the stage at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern auditorium. She is the Utah Conservatory’s office manager and along with Utah Conservatory Director Debra Cook, she’s organized, coordinated and otherwise herded 70 humans in the multi-faceted endeavor of getting them to NYC. Reppart has personal reasons for participating in the Requiem. She lost two beloved friends last summer in separate accidents.

“We were on a motorcycle ride with my partner and a dog ran into the road and he ended up crashing his bike and he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, super kind. I mean you can't replace someone like that. I did have him with me and I was with him when he passed away and you just kind of look at life and you see how fragile it is. And you know, this Requiem is really important to me because I will be dedicating it to John Kenny.”

Seven days later another friend died in a motorcycle accident while on his way to visit her. She says the loss of two friends in one week makes no sense.

“You know, to have your friend die in your arms and then your best friend passes away  seven days later was…it's just crazy and just the beauty, the beauty that was in both of them will be remembered at the Requiem. So that's why it's so important to me to participate in this event.”

Gordon Vetas plays guitar, sings, and has a debut of his own the day after he performs in the choir at Carnegie Hall. He and his alt rock band will be performing at the Triad Theater which is a cabaret-style performing arts venue. He has an album coming out this month with mostly original music.

“It will be my album release party at The Triad. Coincidentally it actually will be the day after Carnegie. I honestly never thought I would step foot in Carnegie and here I am going to sing in Carnegie Hall with the chorus, with this beautiful genre that I never thought I would sing and I never thought I would do this this kind of music. So, it's really such a blessing and I'm really excited to go and I'm very humbled to go.”

He has been taking voice lessons with Cook since last year and after a couple of months, she invited him to join the choir. He doesn’t read music and with Cook’s help, he has memorized his part. But Vetas was brought up in the Greek Orthodox church and the Requiem is somehow familiar.

It’s been very cathartic and almost nostalgic in a way because there’s a line in the Rutter, in the Requiem. It says Kyriae Ilaison   and that’s Greek for Lord Have Mercy and I've been hearing that since I was 3 years old.

Ecker Hill Middle School student, Charlotte Bargowsky is a musical theater buff. She says, about herself, that she’s obsessed with musical theater. She plans to see three shows while she is in New York. She loves Broadway and can talk about musical theater trivia that spans decades.

“Lessons with Debra for about a year and at the end of the lesson, she’s like oh yeah, and we're doing this thing where we're going to sing a requiem and we're going to go to New York next February. And I was like, yes, I'm doing it.”

Bargowsky says it’s hard to believe she’ll be singing on a stage where her idols have performed.

“Like I said, I haven’t really done anything other than musical theater. So, it was new for me but now I'm kind of getting used to the style and I’m so thankful that I'm doing it, having this experience, because it just brings something new. Like you have to use a different type of voice in a different type of strategy for singing. It's a good learning experience.”

That’s Ecker Hill Middle School seventh grader Charlotte Bargowsky on her way to sing John Rutter’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall for the February 16 performance. She’ll be joined by 70 others from the Wasatch Back.  
 
 
 

KPCW reporter Carolyn Murray covers Summit and Wasatch County School Districts. She also reports on wildlife and environmental stories, along with breaking news. Carolyn has been in town since the mid ‘80s and raised two daughters in Park City.