Heinen hits a high note at Carnegie Hall:

Cedar Grove-Belgium High School freshman Abbi Heinen said she loves music because it’s “amazing something can be so beautiful and you can’t see it. The beauty of it is you can just hear it.”

At New York City’s Carnegie Hall, she could feel it, but not while sitting in the audience. Heinen was performing on the stage.

“It was the third movement of one of our songs. It starts with all the instruments building up into this huge moment.

“The ground shook and it echoed throughout. Me and the other oboist didn’t play during that measure, and we looked at each other and our jaws dropped,” Heinen said.

“The acoustics make it what it is. The best I’ve heard anywhere.”

That’s why the venue only allows the best to perform, and Heinen’s nomination by an anonymous teacher and videotaped audition through the WorldStrides Honors Performance Series passed the test.

Heinen played with 72 other student musicians from across the world in the Honors Band on Sunday night in midtown Manhattan’s world-famous 134-year-old concert venue that can seat 2,804 people. This was her own Super Bowl.

Heinen sat on the outside of her row closest to the audience.

“It’s kind of scary. Everyone can see me,” she said. “But it’s also cool. I can see out.”

The band performed “Shimmering Sunshine” by Kevin Day, “Riften Wed” by Julie Giroux and “Desert Sage” by Michael Markowski.

Heinen was one of two oboists. She has been playing the instrument since fifth grade.

“It does take a lot more work than a lot of instruments do,” she said, due to its double reed and tiny oval to send air through.

Heinen’s mother began teaching her piano at 4, and Heinen took it from there. Today, she writes music, can play bass guitar, ukulele, saxophone, accordion, a little banjo and she has two trumpets she is learning to play “but it’s a very slow process because I’m busy,” she said.

The band was kept busy with multiple three-hour rehearsals during the few days leading up to the performance while squeezing in the sights, sounds and tastes of the city. Heinen saw “The Great Gatsby” on Broadway, visited the Museum of Broadway, the NBC Studios building and saw the Rink at Rockefeller Center. She ate at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, famous for its singing wait staff, many of whom go on to sing on Broadway.

It snowed on Saturday night, and some of the musicians who never experienced the white stuff made snowmen.

Heinen’s parents Eric and Anna Meinnert and her brother Caleb Heinen, a high school senior, came along and saw other parts of the Big Apple, including the Empire State Building, USS Intrepid and Times Square. They had an egg roll in Chinatown and New York-style pizza and a cannoli in Little Italy.

They, too, were amazed by how the music filled Carnegie Hall and by the talent on stage.

“It was hard to believe they were high-schoolers,” Anna said.

Eric said the conductor had to hold his closed fingers for a few moments longer at the end of songs because the acoustics reverberated so much. He could even hear music stands sliding up and down and folding during setup.

Heinen loved the entire trip and made new friends from across the country who share her passion. The highlight, though, was actual music to her ears.

“I would say the coolest part was just hearing how the music sounded in Carnegie,” she said.

For more information, visit https://honorsperformance.org.