Marcela Molina will take 40 girls on the plane from Tucson to New York City in June.
When they return six days later, those 40 girls, who range in age from 12 to 18 will be transformed, she says.
"In many ways I leave with a girl and I come back with another girl," the Tucson Girls Chorus artistic director explains. "They change so much because of the experience."
The experience starts with being on their own, often for the first time, navigating a foreign city. They will be responsible for their own money, keeping tabs on their luggage, keeping their schedules, buying their own meals. No parents will be there to get their back.
But the ultimate life-changer will be strolling confidently onto the stage of America's most revered concert hall, Carnegie. Sometime during that night it will dawn on them that they are standing on a stage that has held greatness well beyond their current pedigree but not impossibly out of their reach.
"I remember the first time I sang there," said Molina, who made her Carnegie Hall debut as an undergraduate at Westminster College of the Arts in New Jersey. "It absolutely changed my life. You cannot believe you are in that hall singing."
This weekend and next, the chorus will perform a trio of Carnegie run-up concerts, including a performance Saturday of John Rutter's "Mass of the Children" — the piece they will sing in New York — with Molina's other choir, Tucson Masterworks Chorale.
Carnegie Hall comes just two years after the Girls Chorus was on the brink of folding. The office staff had left en masse when funding dried up, and the board of directors was considering whether the chorus, founded in 1985, was worth saving.
The board brought in consultant Beth Walkup, a veteran non-profits troubleshooter and longtime Girls Chorus volunteer, for a two-month stint to answer that question.
What immediately struck her, she said this week, was the board's dedication to the chorus. Only one of the board members had a daughter in the chorus, yet all of them — most were businesswomen — were invested emotionally in the group, working tirelessly to keep it afloat.
Walkup, whose husband is Mayor Bob Walkup, concluded after the two months that the board couldn't do it themselves. So she volunteered for five additional months to help them turn things around.
They reached out to the community and recruited girls from throughout the Tucson area, from every socioeconomic and geographic area, and offered more needs-based scholarships to cover the roughly $500 annual chorus fees. She also reached out to the choristers and learned that they took away from the group so much more than music education: They became more self-confident, learned to work with one another and developed relationships that will take them into their futures.
That probably more than anything is what drives Walkup to clock in 40 to 60 hours a week with the chorus, which hired her as its very part-time — 10 hours a week — interim executive director.
The chorus's fortunes have turned around in the past year. Last summer, the Advanced Choir toured Europe. This summer, the Advanced Choir and the Jubilate Choir — made up of less-experienced choristers — and five alumni are off to Carnegie Hall, an invitation that Walkup said came with kudos and praise, including calling the group "one of the very best girls choruses (he had) ever heard."
"The quality and the complexity of the music — they're singing six-part harmony, which is pretty amazing," Walkup gushed, confessing that she fully expects to cry when the girls are on Carnegie's stage. "I am so proud of them. They have to work hard to be successful at this and the stick-to-itiveness that they have."
"Carnegie Hall is such an important venue," added Molina. "Major musicians perform there. . . . I know it is going to change their lives for the better."
If you go
• Tucson Girls Chorus in concert.
The chorus is getting ready to make its debut at New York's Carnegie Hall on June 14. It will perform several Tucson concerts leading up to the New York trip to give Tucson a preview of the historic concert. The chorus is also raising money to fund the trip.
• When and where: 3 p.m. Saturday at Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway. Program: John Rutter's "Mass of the Children," featuring guests the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Tickets: $15 per person; $12 seniors and students
• 7 p.m. Sunday at DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center in Reid Park, with the Tucson Pops Orchestra. Admission: Free.
• 7 p.m. May 17 at the Temple of Music & Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Program: Sounds of Spring Showcase Concert. Tickets: $15 on the floor, $10 balcony.
• Details: 577-6064.
• Et cetera: Interested in singing with the chorus? The group is holding open tryouts from 4 to 7 p.m. May 29 and 9 a.m. to noon May 30 at the Tucson Girls Chorus Music Center, 4020 E. River Road. There's a $30 audition fee due at the tryout.
