High Life A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : N.Y. Trip Strikes Right Note for Orchestra : Music: Orange County Youth Symphony members enjoy an experience of a lifetime--playing at fabled Carnegie Hall.

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

“Practice, practice, practice.”

By doing just that, 68 high school musicians from the Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra made it to New York City this month to perform as part of Carnegie Hall’s centennial celebration.

The youth orchestra, which was formed in 1970, has been under the direction of John Koshak since 1974. From September through May, its members rehearse weekly at Chapman College in Orange, where Koshak teaches conducting.

The orchestra’s concert season consists of three public performances at Chapman and eight sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society for area fifth-graders at the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Its musicians, who range in age from 13 to 20, must audition each year, so placement and membership is never guaranteed.

This summer’s trip to New York City may appear to pale in comparison to past summers, when the teen-agers performed in Germany, Italy and Switzerland in 1983 and China, Japan and Hong Kong in 1987; however, playing Carnegie Hall--not to mention in the lobby of the United Nations building--was the answer to many of the young musicians’ dreams.

“I felt flattered,” said Eunice Lee, a cellist and recent graduate of Connelly High School in Anaheim.

The orchestra, along with 10 parent chaperones, four staff members and Koshak, stayed in the Hotel Pennsylvania on 7th Avenue and 33rd Street. Sightseeing tours took them to the Empire State Building, Chinatown and the Hudson River, where they watched a Fourth of July fireworks display light up the city’s night.

On July 5, the members visited the U.N. building, where a crowd gathered as soon as they began setting up to play. After their performance, which was greeted with enthusiastic applause, the musicians toured the building.

That night, they ate dinner in Little Italy and saw “Les Miserables” at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway.

After a brief rehearsal the morning of July 6, the teen-agers spent the remainder of the day playing tourists, with visits to Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Greenwich Village.

Finally, the big day--July 7 and the performance at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra was one of four--and the only one from California--on the bill as part of a concert series sponsored by MidAmerica Productions, a group that produces professional and educational concerts in this country and in Europe.

“Carnegie Hall is considered the top concert hall in the country,” Koshak noted in an interview before the orchestra’s trip.

Standing on the stage for the first time during dress rehearsals, the hall’s simple beauty was breathtaking--from its white walls and red velvet seats to its detailed architecture--as was the knowledge that Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky stood in the very same place when he conducted the New York Symphony Society Orchestra on opening night in 1891.

The July 7 concert went smoothly--no mistakes and perfectly executed solos, just as the young musicians had practiced so many times. They performed music by Beethoven, Dvorak, Charles Ives and Leonard Bernstein.

“It was the best graduation present I could have ever hoped to receive,” said Sam Nordrum, a violinist and recent graduate of Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo.

Before leaving Carnegie Hall that evening, a group picture had to be taken. One of the parents, attempting to get just the right camera angle and include everyone within the frame, ran across the street and climbed atop a telephone booth for the photo.

The night ended with dinner and dancing during a moonlight cruise around the island of Manhattan. The highlight was passing the Statue of Liberty; everybody went to the ship’s open deck to get a better look.

In the time remaining before they left July 8, some teens took buggy rides through Central Park, visited F.A.O. Schwarz toy store and even rode the subway--attempting, perhaps, to combine the reality of a trip to New York City with the fantasy of performing in Carnegie Hall.