The line running through the hall at Lane Technical College Prep High School, the city’s largest public high school, was not unusual — if there’s one thing you learn in school, it’s how to stand in line. There were long rows of metal lockers, kids shuffling their feet, security guards using the tone of voice generations of school security guards have used to ask rhetorical questions intended to elicit self-doubt: Were you in the right line? Did you actually know how to follow directions? “Everyone has a ticket, right?”
A ticket, luckily, was the lone prerequisite to a place in the line and in the Lane Tech auditorium, an 80-plus-year-old space for a couple of thousand spectators that most recently hosted the school’s fall production of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit.” Though no one was in costume as a ghost, and there would be no discernible fake British accents, Wednesday night’s program — the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual free community concert — had its own appeal. For one thing, said Marcello Valle, who held down the front of the line, “The price was right.” Valle, whose son Marcello Jr., 12, attends Lane Tech’s Academic Center for high-achieving seventh- and eighth-graders, saw the concert mentioned in an email from the school, and “I clicked on it, grabbed them and made a donation, that was it.” He surprised his family with the tickets. “He just told me, ‘Here, we’re going to a concert,’” said his wife, Rebecca, who got in line behind Marcello Sr. about two hours before showtime with the rest of the Valle family: Arianna, 14; Marcello Jr.; Alyssa, 10; Yarisella, 7; and Ozziel, 5.
The Valles weren’t the only full family in attendance. Lane Tech music students, some of whom had been treated to a CSO ensemble performance and attended master classes with CSO concertmasters in the days leading up to the concert, were encouraged to get tickets and bring family members. “We had 700 tickets reserved,” said Lane’s orchestra director, Devon Morales, “and 700 went. I had kids asking me today if they could get an extra ticket, if there were tickets left. So everyone was buzzing about it.”
Music teacher Miles Comiskey, whose job includes overseeing the school auditorium, was chasing a solution to entryway lights that had suddenly failed, but he still seemed a little awed as orchestra members started to take their places on stage. “I spend just hours and hours of my life here,” he said, “helping with drama productions and musical stuff and talent shows and sometimes it feels like I live here … and now the CSO is performing here.”
Though the performance itself is rare, the orchestra has a long history with Lane — in 1929, the director of the CSO assisted in the development of the school’s first music program, and many Lane musicians have found their way onto the CSO roster.
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Down front, Assistant Principal Sarah Hanly paced nervously as she waited to introduce maestro Riccardo Muti and the orchestra. She makes a lot of announcements from this stage, she said, “when it’s 2,000 kids, not 2,000 adults!”
High school hadn’t changed much, though. In a nearby corner, two teens from the Stage Krew club (“With a ‘k’ because we’re cool,” they deadpanned), who typically help with student productions, were amazed at how full the house was, and at the fact that one of their teachers brought a date.
But the main difference, said junior Anthony Malo, between a CSO show and a student one is “they brought their own sound and light people, so I’m out of a job.” He continued cheerfully greeting concertgoers anyway, with no designs on the jobs of the red-jacketed ushers the CSO also brought along. One of them urged the Valle kids to close their eyes to better appreciate the music. “It’s going to sound beautiful,” she said. Did she mean the acoustics? “No, the acoustics are terrible,” she said with a guffaw. “It’s a high school auditorium! The instruments will sound beautiful though.”
They did, of course, and the crowd, from first-timers to seasoned symphony patrons, was appreciative.
“I always wanted to see the symphony,” said Marcello Valle Sr. “It’s my dream, and here’s my opportunity.”
cdampier@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @csdampier