Local Oak Park Middle School student Jiren Earl will perform at one of the most prestigious venues in the world Saturday, June 17. Earl was chosen for the Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall after submitting his audition materials earlier this year. Only 350 students are selected from middle schools across the United States.

Leslie Gunter is Earl’s band teacher at Oak Park Middle, a school that offers dance, chorus, guitar, art, band, strings and STEM classes.

“He gets music at home and at school,” Gunter said. “It’s all around him. I’ve had him since 6th grade and sometimes I hear him practicing things I wouldn’t expect him to be able to play on the tuba. He even helps the other band members figure out their parts using his instrument.

Earl grew up in a bandroom, his mother Tamekia Holliday said. She has been teaching at Washington Marion Magnet School for 13 years. In 2018, the Washington Marion band was chosen to perform at Carnegie.

“He was hesitant to audition,” Holliday said. “He didn’t think he was good enough.” She encouraged him to try, saying “you never know what might happen.”

Holliday’s sisters were high school band standouts, but she is the only one who pursued it as a career. Earl’s father is a drummer. Jiren, in addition to playing the tuba, is a percussionist.

Earl and students from across the country, will perform three pieces, and work with world-class conductor Dr. Gregory X. Whitmore, an Assistant Professor of Instrumental Music Education at The California State University Fullerton School of Music. He is in his ninth season as Music Director of the Pacific Youth Wind Ensemble.