Old World dreams in a New World song

By ERIC ADLER

KANSAS CITY — Just days before they jet off to Norway, the
members of Staley High School’s Falcon Chorale stood on stage to
rehearse a choral piece that their director said — without
hyperbole — will change his life.

“I am just waiting for the days to unfold,” Tracy Resseguie said
at the school in Kansas City, North, his voice choked with emotion.
The choir leaves Friday on a spring break tour.

“I really think it’s something that transcends all of us.”

On March 19, the piece the choir has been practicing will become
possibly the first song to be performed by a high school choir in
the Great Hall on Ellis Island in New York.

“It is very rare,” said Tonia Best, the island’s permits
coordinator. “Most choral groups are not allowed to sing in the
Great Hall. It is not something we do.”

Although musical groups are frequently allowed to perform
outside on the grounds, the Great Hall, where millions of
immigrants to the United States were processed between 1892 and
1954, is hallowed space.

But because of Resseguie’s personal connections (his name is
pronounced like “recipe” with a hard “g”), along with calls and
letters to members of Congress, the National Park Service agreed
last week to let this one choir sing this one time and, it
stressed, only one selection.