What are your most and least favorite subjects and why?

Right now, it's my CTE (Career and Technical Education) studies. Seniors in the Performing Arts Academy have to do a research-based study. I’m studying *psychoacoustics and how music therapy helps people with dementia. On top of that, you can also include a project, so I’m writing a musical. My pathway is Music Production and Recording Arts.

I fell in love with musicals when I was the bass player in our school’s In the Heights musical. In my sophomore year, I jumped into sound and lighting, which was a lot of fun. Last year, for our musical Heathers, I was the pit conductor and we won best student orchestra at the Blumey Awards.

The musical I’m writing is related to dementia. It is about my nonna, who immigrated from Italy, and her experiences coming to America. The story is set in a 1940s mob boss setting, so the music is super fun. I’ve started composing it already, but I have to record it.

The reason I researched dementia and healing with music is that my nonna had dementia. They found out it was due to a medication she was taking. Once she got off of those, it was a lot better. She started remembering things. When COVID hit, she passed away just as she was getting better. I can't stage the musical, but it's the idea of you living in your best moments. People often remember things from their younger years more than the present.

I decided to take physics last semester and it was a bad idea. It was really hard and more conceptual than I was expecting. It was less about working through an equation to get a solution and more about looking at this situation, developing an equation and then solving it. It was a challenge.

If you could travel anywhere, where would it be and why?

I plan to travel to Italy with a friend and her cousin next summer, so that’s where I’m most excited to go now. My friend and I are both Italian, so we are getting to see where our ancestors came from. I still have distant family there. My grandfather went with my nonna a couple of years before she passed and met up with some family. There might be a chance for me to connect with them.

I’m looking forward to seeing the coast and northern parts near the vineyards. We plan to rent a car so we can explore as much as possible. I want to go to Milan because they have some cool music universities there that I’d like to check out.

What careers interest you?

I’d like to attend the University of South Carolina. I recently had my audition there, which was so much fun. They opened a bachelor of science in music industry studies program about a year ago, which is what I want to do.

The reason I want to go into this program is that it will expand my ideas of what I can do in the music industry and also help me narrow down what I want to do. I could see myself going into music therapy but I also want to write, compose and produce. I do a lot of songwriting now. I sing and play five instruments: the trumpet, piano, bass, euphonium and guitar.

What clubs or activities do you participate in? And why?

I am part of the jazz band and play the trumpet. I also did a jazz combo, which is a mix of vocals and jazz. I was the vocal soloist for a jazz arrangement of Memories by Maroon 5. I also sang Skyfall during the spring semester with a 36-instrument band.

I’m part of our marching band. I played trumpet for two years, was the low brass leader my junior year and was drum major this past year. I was the pit orchestra's bass conductor.

I’m also the historian for our Tri-M Music Honor Society; the idea is to help support musicians and music performances. We are required to go to at least two other performing arts events that we are not in. It’s easy because there are always theater shows. We have to perform at least once a semester. My academy hosts coffeehouse concerts. They are basically like acoustic concerts, with students creating ensembles. I sang an original song in the last one.

If you had to choose between spaghetti or pizza, which would you choose?

I’m from New York, so pizza. Despite what people might say, pineapple on pizza is good. Pineapple and peppers on pizza are even better.

What three words best describe you?

• Creative - we’ve talked a lot about that one.
• Empathetic - my experiences with grief and loss and some other difficult situations have made me connect with more people. You never know what someone is going through.
• Passionate - the things I want to do I go all in for. I don’t go halfway and stop.

What is your happiest school memory?

I’ve had a lot of really good moments at this school, so that’s hard. When our football team was discontinued, our marching band started playing at the soccer games. This past season, they had a game that was 1-1 and we were in overtime. The guy I was and am still dating scored the tie-breaking goal. That season was the most amount of times I played the fight song.

After they won the game, he and the entire team ran to the podium. The soccer coach and band director made a deal that if a soccer player scored a goal, they could come up on the podium. He came up on the podium and asked me to homecoming. I was not expecting it and it was super cute.

What advice would you give your parents or teachers?

I sometimes feel that parents need to be more patient with children, especially high schoolers. We can get bratty sometimes. There are so many different things that contribute to it. Students also need to be patient with their parents. Life changes for them, too.

Everyone should really have patience with one another and not get too wrapped up in things that don’t concern them.

*Psychoacoustics is the branch of psychology concerned with the perception of sound and its physiological effects.