By GREGORY ZELLER //
Four of Long Island’s best young musicians will tune up their collegiate educations with help from the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.
The Melville-based hall this week announced the recipients of its 2021 student scholarships, supporting high school instrumentalists from Mastic, Northport, Plainview and Riverhead. The winners were selected from applicants across Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn.
The annual Distinction in Music Awards are relatively small – only $500 each – but the talent on display is immense. And the LIMHOF “is honored to have the opportunity to support and acknowledge accomplished high school seniors who are pursuing a future in music,” according to Tom Needham, the hall’s education chairman.
Distinguished: Enos (left) and Barone (above), winners of LIMHOF Distinction in Music Awards.
“The talent that exists on Long Island is something we at [Long Island Music Hall of Fame] want to celebrate,” Needham added. “In addition to following their own dreams, we believe these students will encourage and inspire others.”
Besides their musical accomplishments, the LIMHOF Education Committee based its selections on the answers to an application questionnaire, school transcripts and a short essay stating each applicant’s higher-education and career goals, along with a letter of recommendation from a musical mentor.
Snagging 2021 scholarships were William Floyd High School senior Anthony Barone, who played double bass as a member of the school’s Symphonic Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, and Riverhead High School senior Lauren Enos, a bass clarinetist who participated in the New York State School Music Association All State 2020 Wind Ensemble and was principal clarinet in NYSSMA’s All State 2019 Symphony Orchestra.
Giuliano: High note.
Barone, who will major in bass performance this fall at Ithaca College, said he plans to become a music teacher to “not only spread my appreciation of music, but to also help those like me through music.” Enos, heading for the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, called it a “great honor” to be counted among “some of the most distinguished musicians on Long Island.”
Also winning Distinction in Music Awards were Northport High School senior Elias Giuliano, who played viola in the school’s Symphony Orchestra and piano in its Jazz Ensemble, and Plainview Old Bridge High School senior Emily Howell, who played French horn as a member of the National Association for Music Education All Eastern Symphony Orchestra.
Giuliano, an aspiring music teacher who will major in music education at SUNY Fredonia in the fall, said he was “honored and thrilled to be a [Long Island Music Hall of Fame] scholarship recipient,” while Howell – a member of the 2019 All State Wind Ensemble and 2020 All State Symphony Orchestra who will major in performance on French horn at the prestigious Julliard School of Music – called music “the ultimate universal language that speaks to everyone.”
“Music provides a mode of expression and gives hope in a way that nothing else can,” the scholarship winner noted. “It is a vehicle for communication, an art of sound that expresses emotions, thoughts and ideas through harmonies, rhythms and melody.
“Music provides comfort and solace at all times – and especially in today’s unsettled times.”
