Pampa graduate sings at Carnegie Hall in NYC

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Carnegie Hall has been the main-stage for legendary performers like the Beatles, Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Judy Garland, James Taylor and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Lacey Bilyeu, a 2021 graduate of Pampa High School, can now add her name to the list of Carnegie Hall performers.

The daughter of Kelley and John Bilyeu, Lacey had the opportunity after some connections through her college at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.

“My vocal coach (Judy Marchman) is friends with the director (Jason Strunk, Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C.),” Bilyeu said.

“He said he could use a couple of more sopranos, so my vocal coach picked me and one of my friends (Kayleigh Watkins, of Borger) to go. It was a God thing, the timing was right.”

Bilyeu spent a week in New York City, singing with Strunk’s choir after spending about three weeks preparing for the event.

“We did ‘Mass’ by Mozart and another song by Von Williams,” Bilyeu said.

Carnegie Hall is in Midtown Manhattan in New York City and was built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It’s considered one of the most prestigious venues in the world for classical and popular music.

“It was so cool just to stand on the stage and think about how many people had been on that stage before me,” Bilyeu said. “It’s beautiful. We got to sing with an orchestra and the acoustics in there was so cool.”

Bilyeu also did some of the traditional sight-seeing in New York City including the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, Top of the Rock, Central and see “The Lion King” on broadway.

This was her second trip to New York, the first coming pre-pandemic with Pampa High School.

“You could tell everyone performing was just appreciative to be there,” Bilyeu said. “The arts really took a hit (during the pandemic). So we were just grateful.”

Bilyeu is a music education major and would like to be a music teacher in high school before earning her masters to teach at the college-level.

Bilyeu would like to thank her choir directors/instructors Tammy May and Brianna Montgomery for their love and support through her high school career, as well as her parents for always supporting “the arts.”