2021 Outstanding Achievements Awards
Congratulations to our 2021 Outstanding Achievement Awards winners!
Garden City Friends of Music’s mission is to support music education and encourage the development of music skills in our children. Our annual membership drive and fundraisers enable us to make grants to Garden City schools to supplement and enhance the music programs. In addition to the Garden City Friends of Music scholarship award given to a graduating senior every year, students in fifth, eighth, and twelfth grades are recognized for outstanding achievement in the categories of Band, Orchestra, Vocal Music, and Music in Our Lives. This year, there are 13 award winners.
GARDEN CITY HIGH SCHOOL
Katie Lew
Outstanding Achievement in Band
Katie Lew is honored to receive the Outstanding Achievement in Band Award. Katie’s love of music began at the age of 8, when she started taking piano and voice lessons. In fourth grade, Katie began playing the flute in the Stewart School Band, as well as the Stewart Jazz Band. In fifth grade, she was the recipient of the Friends of Music Award for Band at Stewart. Katie continued playing the flute in the Middle School Band and also began studying the piccolo. In High School, she was selected as a member of the Wind Symphony and then Wind Ensemble under the direction of Dr. McCrann. She played both flute and piccolo and rose to principal piccolo player, junior and senior year. In 2018, Katie was selected to perform in the Long Island Flute Club Honors Flute Choir. Katie has participated in NYSSMA Music Festival over the past 9 years. In addition, she was selected into the All County Band in 2014 and 2015 and All County Orchestra in 2019. Katie was inducted into the Tri-M Music Honor Society in 2019. In 2021, she was honored to be selected All State Alternate for piccolo. Katie is looking forward to attending Loyola University in the Fall.
Emma Gardner
Outstanding Achievement in Orchestra
Emma began with her musical journey back in third grade, choosing to join the school orchestra to play the viola. She took part in each musical in middle school and high school, whether on stage or in the pit and participated in NYSSMA; was selected for All County, LISFA, and Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall. As a freshman, she was chosen for Chamber Orchestra and for Vocal Jazz, an elite ensemble in which she was the student director during her senior year. She is thrilled to have accepted her two musical awards, the Ella Fitzgerald Vocal Jazz award and Garden City Friends Of Music Orchestra award this spring, in addition to receiving the Nassau NYSCAME scholarship. Emma loves broadway music, alternative artists, and pretty much any music you put in front of her. This fall, Emma will be attending New York University as a Voice Performance: Musical Theatre Concentration major.
Molly Madigan
Outstanding Achievement in Vocal Music
Molly’s love of singing started when she performed the part of Mimi in La Boehme at Stewart School. Molly studied voice privately and enjoyed all genres of music. While at the High School, Molly sang in Chamber Choir, Vocal Jazz and Concert Choir, where she was student director senior year. She was a board member of Tri M, the music honor society. Molly performed in the NYSSMA festival each year and sang with The All County Chorus for seven consecutive years. She was selected to the All State Chorus in 2020 and 2021 and All Eastern Chorus in 2021. Molly sang with The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra and also with The Honors Performance Series singing at both Lincoln Centre and Carnegie Hall. A musical highlight for Molly was participating in Ingenium Academy in London where she sang with students from all over the world. Molly was accepted into her dream school, NYU Steinhardt and was planning on studying Music Education. Molly had the voice of an angel and will be missed by all who knew her.
GARDEN CITY MIDDLE SCHOOL
Julia Wang
Outstanding Achievement in Band
Julia was introduced to the flute in fourth grade at Stewart School. Over the years, she has developed her passion for flute and even added piccolo to her list, completing NYSSMA Level 6 on both instruments. Julia was selected for the All-County Music Festival in 2018, 2019, and 2020. She was also honored to be the recipient of a full scholarship to the LIU Chamber Music Festival. Julia would like to thank Ms. Sanders and Ms. Iovino for the guidance and encouragement they have given her throughout middle school. She looks forward to continuing her music journey at the high school.
Elijah Scalere
Outstanding Achievement in Music In Our Lives
Elijah began creating and mixing audio for his short films in 2nd grade at Stratford School. This passion lead him to being a vital member of the stage crew in the 5th grade play, where he assisted the director Mrs Lavin, with music queues and running sound checks to ensure the play ran smoothly. At the GCMS, he has been an active member of the electronic music club, chorus, and the Music Box Players as both cast and crew. He is as comfortable singing on stage as he is in setting up the cast microphone system. With the help of the GC Middle School Music Box Players instructors, he has become proficient in the use of mixing boards while optimizing audio connections and supervising many of the technical aspects of a musical production.
He is looking forward to continuing these interests at Chaminade HS where he will be joining the Glee Club, the Darby Players, and the Elements Film Club in the Fall.
Samuel Chan
Outstanding Achievement in Orchestra
Samuel’s interest in music began at a very young age while he was trying several different instruments. He began to play viola in 3rd grade at Stewart Elementary School and continued at Garden City Middle School under the wonderful guidance of Mr. Albani and Mrs. Gullotta respectively. He has participated in the MYSSMA Festival for three years and completed Level 6 with a perfect score this year. He also participated at the Long Island String Festival and the All-County Music Festival in 2019 and was selected for next year’s Festivals as well. He has been playing at MYO as the principal Violist for two years. This summer he is excited to join the Philadelphia International Music Festival. Samuel is much honored to have received this award back at Stewart School and at Middle School.
Finn O’Rourke
Outstanding Achievement in Vocal Music
Finn O’Rourke is a rising ninth grader who will be attending The Garden City High School this September. Finn’s love of theatre began when he was a fifth grader playing Hoffmann in Stewart School’s production of The Tales of Hoffmann. Since then he has played many roles including Simba in The Lion King Jr, Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid Jr., Prince Abdullah in Aladdin Jr. and Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in Anything Goes YPE. In addition he was also Nigel in the Cultural Arts Playhouse production of Matilda. Finn hopes to continue theatre in high school and many more years to come.
STEWART SCHOOL
Susanna Phinney
Outstanding Achievement in Band
Susanna Phinney began her musical life early, singing regularly in the children’s choir at Resurrection starting at age 3. At age 5, she composed a piano piece, for which she was honored to compete at the NY state level in the PTA Reflections contest after having won 1st place locally and winning at county level. When Susanna was in third grade, she requested to play the flute. At Stewart School, she sang in Select Chorus and played flute in the Band, under the direction of Mr. Psenicka. She increased her flute practicing during quarantine with her older sisters, combining her flute with their cello (Rebecca) and oboe (Sarah). Susanna happily participated in NYSSMA this spring, having missed the chance in 2020.
Yuyan Lin
Outstanding Achievement in Orchestra
Yuyan began her interest in playing the violin at a music concert. She soon took the summer orchestra course and then joined the Stewart School orchestra at grade 4. Yuyan started learning piano at age 7 and took piano NYSSMA level 3, and 4. She attended a piano concert and played piano to a live audience. Yuyan is also currently learning guitar. She has been watching guitar lessons online and practicing at home. Yuyan enjoys learning music and is looking forward to being in the Middle School orchestra.
Marco Messi
Outstanding Achievement in Vocal Music
Marco’s passion for singing began at an early age. He began taking Musical Theatre classes and Voice lessons at The Music Academy Foundation at the age of 8 years old and, through the Foundation, performed roles in productions of Beauty and the Beast, The Princess and the Pea, and a Musical Theatre Cabaret. This year, his singing culminated with participation in the Spring Orchestra and Chorus Concert at Stewart School. While also playing violin in the Stewart School Orchestra, he participated in Stewart School’s Select Chorus. Marco has also participated in the NYSSMA Festival for the first time this year, and scored in the Outstanding Category. He is the recipient of this year’s Garden City Friends of Music Outstanding Achievement in Vocal Music Award at Stewart School.
STRATFORD SCHOOL
Ryan Schmidt
Outstanding Achievement in Band
Ryan’s musical journey began playing Star Wars themes on his baby brother’s toy piano when he was five. Given his interest and persistence, he soon started formal piano instruction, and earned a perfect score at NYSSMA level 1. Adding the trumpet in fourth grade was a natural fit. He played for two years with the Stratford School band and went to NYSSMA this year with a level 3 trumpet solo. Ryan also enjoys improvising on his brother’s drumset, listening to all kinds of new music and movie scores, and composing original songs on the piano or with Garage Band on his iPad. He looks forward to continuing his musical journey at GCMS next year.
Leah Grohotolski
Outstanding Achievement in Orchestra
Leah’s interests in music began in pre-school where she would get excited when the teacher let her play with the real piano in the classroom. She started learning piano in first grade and began playing cello in the Stratford Orchestra in fourth grade. Despite the disruptions due to Covid, she continued with the virtual lessons and google meets and submitted numerous flip-grid videos thanks to Mr. Albani’s patience and fun approach in teaching. Leah also participated in NYSSMA Festival Level 2 cello this past spring and received a perfect score. Leah enjoys playing cello very much and looks forward to playing in the GCMS orchestra next year.
Alexandra Butvick
Outstanding Achievement in Vocal Music
Alexandra Butvick’s interest in musical theater began in third grade when she performed in a junior rendition of Guys & Dolls at the Broadhollow Theater – Elmont. From that experience, Alexandra developed a passion for performing on stage and has performed in the following productions: The Little Mermaid (Plaza Theatrical Productions), Frozen, as Young Elsa (Broadhollow Theater – Elmont), Live & Let Spy (The Madison Theatre at Molloy College), Cinderella (Music Academy of Garden City), and a Cabaret (Music Academy of Garden City) where she performed “Maybe” from Annie. Alexandra continues to train with her music teacher, George Petersen, in vocal and piano, and has also participated in the NYSSMA Festival for piano and vocal.
