05/12/97 KARAOKE FOR HIGH-BROWS

KARAOKE FOR HIGH-BROWS

WHEN LOST TOURISTS ASK New Yorkers how to get to Carnegie Hall, the standard reply is: ''Practice, practice.'' Now, there's another path, and it's online.
America Online is signing up its customers to perform Handel's Messiah in the New York City landmark on Nov. 30. The actual performance will be live, but much of the prep work will be done electronically. In addition to enlisting the chorus, AOL is setting up a bulletin board for the singers to swap ideas. A special AOL chat room will allow London conductor John Rutter to organize the event. Two days of live rehearsals will be held in New York.
The program is the brainchild of Eugene Carr, former executive director of the American Symphony Orchestra and now president of CultureFinder, an AOL arts site. So far, 400 people have applied to sing in the Carnegie Hall performance; 200 will be chosen, based on audition tapes they send in. The event will cost each singer $826, which includes four nights in a hotel, double occupancy, and a boat trip around Manhattan. Says one choral hopeful, Colleen Brennan of Warsaw, Ind.: ''This would be something I'd cherish for the rest of my life.''
Amy Barrett
EDITED BY LARRY LIGHT