33°
Seven graduating seniors from six high schools will be honored in June when The Justin Veatch Fund presents each of them with a $1,000 music scholarship. The award comes with a personally inscribed metronome which has become synonymous with the honor.
The 2017 recipients are Cooper Aquilino from Mahopac, Grace Dashnaw from Somers, Emily Fareed from Hendrick Hudson, Ellen Gruber also from Hendrick Hudson, Trevor Legeret from Newtown, CT, Gabrielle Sansone from Lakeland and Victoria Vespucci from Yorktown.
The awards program will be held at 6 p.m. on June 14 at the John C. Hart Memorial Library in Shrub Oak.
The Justin Veatch Fund honors Yorktown High School senior and musician Justin Veatch who died from an accidental drug overdose in 2008. Veatch’s story is told in schools by his father, Jeffrey Veatch, in hopes of preventing other such tragedies.
Aquilino is graduating from Mahopac High School and plans to major in music education and film at Hunter College in New York City. He sings, plays piano, ukulele and writes songs.
Dashnaw is graduating from Somers High School and plans to major in music at Ithaca College in the fall. She is a cellist who also plays piano, sings and composes. Her private cello teacher says she has the capabilities of a much older musician.
Fareed is graduating from Hendrick Hudson High School and plans to major in music education with a concentration on voice at the University of Delaware. During her senior year, Fareed served as senior choir leader which involved conducting and teaching in the leader’s absence.
Gruber is graduating from Hendrick Hudson High School and plans to major in performance, recording arts and acoustics at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. In addition to piano and voice, Gruber’s main instruments are the oboe and English horn.
Legeret is graduating from Newtown High School and will be attending Pratt Institute where he plans to major in film. Legeret says he hopes to score music for film. He was part of The Justin Veatch Fund’s 2014 concert, opening for and performing with headliner Livingston Taylor.
Sansone is graduating from Lakeland High School and plans to pursue musical theatre as a performer on Broadway and possibly television and film. Sansone is a vocalist with a long list of on-stage credits.
Vespucci is graduating from Yorktown High School and plans to major in music education at Crane School of Music at SUNY’s Potsdam College. Vespucci says her goal is to become a band teacher and also perform professionally as time permits.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Yorktown and receive free news updates.
