It is going to be a summer of music and travel for an Oak Park and River Forest High School senior who was selected to be a part of a national orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
Maxine Gimbel, a senior at OPRF, will be taking her love of music on the road with the 2024 National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America as the orchestra travels throughout the summer on its South American tour.
Gimbel, who has played the double bass for the past six years, began her music journey with the violin but switched to the bigger string instrument in middle school.
“I thought it was cool,” Gimbel said. “I thought it was interesting looking. It started as not a serious choice, but I fell in love with the bass and really got into practicing, especially during Covid.”
As the 18-year-old got better at the instrument, the fun only grew, she said.
At OPRF, Gimbel has been part of the concert orchestra and the symphony orchestra for the past three years.
“I like how in music there is always more to add on, more to explore, and more to improve on,” Gimbel said. “In any excerpt from any piece there are a million different ways to play it, a million different ways to feel the music. A lot of the technical stuff, you can work on. I feel like it is endless in the different things you can do to make things better.”
For the NYO-USA, Gimbel sent in audition recordings of herself playing solo pieces and included an essay as part of her application. For her audition, Gimbel played the “Double Bass Concerto” by Johann Baptist Vanhal and “Cello Suite No.1” by Johann Sebastian Bach, better known as the “Prelude.”
Gimbel said she was also playing those pieces for her college admission auditions so the timing lined up very well. Gimbel said she will be pursuing a performance major in college.
The audition paid off as Gimbel was chosen to be part of the NYO-USA.
“It is really exciting, I am the only kid from Illinois, so I am excited to represent the state and meet people that play my instrument from all over the country, which I don’t get to do ever,” Gimbel said. “It is a really cool opportunity.”
Carnegie Hall announced their chosen 103 young musicians in early March. They range between the ages of 16 to 19 years old and hail from 34 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
In the press release from Carnegie Hall Public Relations, the young musicians “have been recognized by Carnegie Hall as being among the finest players in the country following a comprehensive and highly selective audition process.”
The selected musicians will travel to New York and participate in an “intensive” two-week training residency at Purchase College, State University of New York.
“We are starting with a bit of a boot camp,” Gimbel said. “Where we rehearse for a couple days together, get used to the music together, and practice together.”
Gimbel said she is excited to also get to collaborate with other musicians from around the world before embarking on the tour.
Tour stops will include Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro, where they will be performing Barber’s Symphony No. 1, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” and more.
Gimbel will also be participating in the newly announced summer concert festival World Orchestra Week, which aims to celebrate international youth orchestras and will take place Aug. 1-7. Alongside NYO-USA, the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela, African United Youth Orchestra, Beijing Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Afghan Youth Orchestra will be performing, led by various talented musicians including Marin Alsop, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gustavo Dudamel, Lü Jia, Iván Fischer, Isata Kanneh-Mason, and Tiago Moreira da Silva.
The week-long festivities are set to be “one history-making week,” at Carnegie Hall where performers will share the stage with “today’s most internationally renowned conductors and soloists.”
Gimbal also has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the ISB Jane Little Scholarship, a $10,000 scholarship that is given annually to a female double bass major entering college as a freshman.
This story has been updated from its original version to include new information. Updated April 30, 2024.