TOMS RIVER, NJ — Two Donovan Catholic students have earned the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall as part of the 2018 Golden Key Music Festival.

Kristen Eckert, a junior, and Catherine Hynoski, a senior, earned the opportunities to perform in the recitals at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall through auditions in March at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, Donovan Catholic officials said. Eckert, in her third year in the recital competition, earned gold level status. Hynoski, performing in the recital competition for the seventh year, received silver level status. The auditions were adjudicated by Golden Key Festival founder George Borisov from Russia and many other prestigious international performers and university professors.

Eckert began playing the piano by ear at age 8 and moved on to taking lessons at the Music Academy in Toms River and also at Beachwood Music under the instruction of Irene Kapp. Hynoski has been playing piano for 11 years and also is a student of Kapp, officials said.

The Golden Key Festival was started in 2002 and has become a major cultural event in the United States that attracts young instrumental musicians and vocalists from across the United States and other continents, according to its website. Its mission is "to give young musicians the opportunity to display their talents on some of the most prestigious concert stages in the U.S., to open for them the door into the magic world of art, a realm where almost everyone who steps on the stage is gratified with an incomparable feeling of self affirmation." For those interested, the Silver performances are on Saturday, May 12, and Gold are Friday, May 25, according to the website. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Carnegie Hall Box office. (Click here for information.)

Carnegie Weill Hall is at 154 W. 57th Street, New York.