Musicians from Kennedy, Saddle Rock, Great Neck South Middle, and Great Neck South High Schools took top awards at the NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) Major Organizations Festival held in May at Hofstra University.
For the second time in as many years, the John F. Kennedy School Chamber Ensemble garnered a Gold Medal Level 1 Award.
Musicians, listed by instrument: Violin: Amie Adjakple, Michael Chan, Vanessa Enayatian, Esther (HeeJun) Hwang, Michael Jacobs, Chloe Katchis, Gregory Katchis, Maxim Lando, Nina Phillips, Alexandra (Lexy) Roubeni, Benjamin Taied, Adam Tsou, Victoria Varkonyi, and Daniel Zeng. Viola: Adena Etaat, Jonathan Heravi, and Brandon Lin. Cello: Daniel Choi, Judah Nouriyelian, and Daria Scolnick. String Bass: Shaun Maher and Matthew Somekh. Their music teacher is Amy Kempton.
Silver medal awards were won by Saddle Rock and Great Neck South Middle Schools.
The winning Saddle Rock Orchestra, Level 1: Violin: Jihye (Ashley) Bae, Rebecca Bernstein, Evan Xing Chen, Lucien Gau, Jooha Gha, Katrina Itchkow, Anna Izakson, MinJeong (Meriel) Jeong, Talia Katz, Matthew Kong, Marguerite (Maggie) Li, Maxim Pachman, Somya Pathak, Abigail Rabbany, Lauren Sakol, Lynna Tsai, and Samuel Ugolini. Viola: Talya Tehrani. Cello: Jeremy Bernstein and Cheryl Chan. Bass: Bianca Banilivi. Piano: Rachel Martini and Grace Qi Song. Their music teacher is Dr. Christopher Wilson.
Great Neck South Middle School sixth-grade band silver medalists: Flute: Samantha Banwer, Danae Byer, Eric Cho, Mona Kim, Rachel Kim, Joyce Lee, Katelyn Lee, Samuel Levine, Amber Li, Seo Hyun Park, Rachel Schneider, Jennifer Wang, Jenny Ye, Michelle Zheng, and Hannah Zhong. Oboe: Jeremy Chen. Clarinet: Tiana Carter, Emily Cheng, Annie Dai, Kevin Feng, Jenna Luka, Jonathan Rothbaum, Jeffery Xu, and Eric Yang. Bass Clarinet: Ryan Cheng and Antonella Velaoras. Alto Saxophone: Rena Chen, Julia Gorenstein, Samantha Grenard, Brian Hu, Jason Lee, Joyce Lee, Christopher Lei, Deven Madan, Christopher Martinucci, Ishaan Pathak, and Jeffery Tse. Tenor Saxophone: Elliot Weissman and William Yan. Baritone Saxophone: Anderson Gu. Trumpet: Hannah Kareff, Noah Sheidlower, and Ethan Zeltser. Baritone: Scott Goodman. Percussion: Paden Dvoor, Logan Hou, Dylan Kareff, Samuel Katzman, Elina Malamed, Jacob Raphael, and Corey Seng. Their music director is Mark Boschen.
The Great Neck South High School Concert Band took a bronze medal at the NYSSMA Festival.
Band members, by instrument: Flute: Stephanie Chang, Joohee (Stella) Gha, Kaitlin Hon, Celina Sun, Victoria Tsao, Michelle Mu Yang, and Danny Zou. Oboe: Hyeajin Kim, Ji Won (Sarah) Kim, Joshua Lee, and Min Hyuk (James) Oh. Clarinet: Angela Chi, Kelly Gragossian, Paul Jung, Benjamin Pinhasov, and Anni Wang. Alto Saxophone: Merdeck Fowler, Jr., Annabelle Golden, Nayoung Kim, Michael Shen, and Ian Wang. Baritone Saxophone: Sunny Shi. Bassoon: Matthew Lee. Trumpet: Christopher Gerhard, Daniel Kiernan, Yoon Sik (Sean) Kim, Dongwook (Alex) Lim, Hamsavardhaan (Hamsa) Pillai, and Faisal Salam. French Horn: Regina Chow and Robin Park. Trombone: Derek Liu. Baritone: Ji Ann Greenberg. Percussion: William Chang, Kendall Francis, Caleb Jiang, Derek Menker, Allyson Mittler, Max Nettler. Mallets: Anthony Chen.
Mark Boschen is also the music director for Great Neck South High’s Concert Band.
