Forget about taking the N Train to 57th Street and 7th Avenue. When a New Yorker asks you, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” the required answer is, “Practice, practice, practice.”

Now that old joke has a new punch line.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? You join the UMS Choral Union (after a lot of practice, of course), and that, my friend, takes you from Tree Town to the Big Apple.

Friday evening (May 10), 32 members of the town-gown UMS Choral Union, most famous locally for its annual performances of Handel’s “Messiah,” appear in New York to sing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, under Leonard Slatkin, at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra is one of 5 American orchestras participating in the 2013 edition of the “Spring for Music” festival, May 6-11.

“Spring For Music,” or S4M, is a festival of six concerts in Carnegie Hall by North American orchestras performing creative, stimulating, and adventurous programs. Eligible orchestras apply for participation by proposing programs reflective of their artistic beliefs and consistent with the festival’s artistic philosophy.

This year, in addition to the Detroit Symphony, which appears twice, orchestras from Albany, Baltimore, Buffalo and Washington, D.C. (the National Orchestra) perform. The first Detroit program, Thursday, features Rachmaninoff, Weill and Ravel. The orchestra’s Friday program is an “Ives Immersion” - Ives symphonies Nos. 1-4, with the Choral Union joining in for the massive No. 4.

The orchestra and singers presented the concert in an “out-of-town” tryout - i.e., in Detroit - last Sunday (April 28). The Choral Union is a frequent DSO choral collaborator.

While the Choral Union, which usually numbers about 150 singers, held auditions for the Carnegie slots - which come with airfare and two nights hotel - earlier in the year, it’s more recently that the singers, immersed in the giant UMS/U-M School of Music Milhaud “Oresteia,” presented at Hill at the beginning of April and recorded by Naxos for CD release, turned their attention to Ives.

The fiercely difficult Milhaud may have been good preparation for the Ives, said Choral Union Director Jerry Blackstone in a recent phone call.

“It’s not as difficult as the Milhaud,” he said, “but it’s quirky, as Ives can be. It can be hard to know when to come in and what the pitch is when you do come in. But it’s so interesting and colorful - very beautiful, hymn tunes - that it’s great.”

Blackstone will accompany the singers. “I’ll go along to hold their hands, and to say ‘It’s gonna be fine,’” he said.

Soprano Erin Scheffler Franklin, one of eight sopranos on the roster for Carnegie, has sung with the Choral Union for seven seasons now. Like other singers, she’s thrilled to be participating.

Asked to comment by the University Musical Society, under whose auspices the Choral Union operates, Franklin said: “What young singer doesn't dream of someday performing at Carnegie Hall? None that I can think of! A dream that I have had since starting voice lessons at the tender age of 11 is now being fulfilled. I couldn't be more excited to travel with the DSO to Manhattan in May to perform Ives' Symphony No. 4 - a privilege and an honor!!”

Ann Arborites who want to cheer on the Choral Union in this “away game” should know that seats (if not airfare and hotel) are cheap: all tickets for S4M are just $25 - a bargain in the Big Apple or even Tree Town.

Or hear the concert from the comfort of your own Tree Town home: Classical 105.9 FM, WQXR in New York City, broadcasts all six “Spring For Music” concerts live from Carnegie Hall, with live audio streaming at www.wqxr.org. All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. If you miss the live event, don’t worry. Concert streams will be archived on WQXR.

For more information, visit carnegiehall.org or call the Carnegie Hall Box Office (212) 247-7800.