Photo Courtesy of WOSD Tri-M Music Honor Society seniors, pictured with adviser John Hellyer, receive cords for graduation.
WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange High School Music Department held its annual awards ceremony outside on May 23. Supervisor of fine arts Louis Quagliato welcomed students and family members.
Music educators — Elena Peres in orchestra; Lew Kelly, Erin Lagatic and Josh Zimmer in band; William Farley and John Hellyer in choral; and Farley for the girls and boys step teams — distributed awards to musicians in various categories. Tri-M Music Honor Society adviser Hellyer distributed pink cords to seniors for graduation.
In particularly touching moments, student representatives — Maya Anand, Risa Kampel and John Caplanis in orchestra; Alexa DeRonde and Maria Nalieth in choral; Ben-Jethro Pierre, Dave Jocelyn and Brian Anim Sackey in step; and Ayush Narain and Shane Donagher in band — lauded their teachers with speeches, gifts and songs.
The event ended as night began to fall and the music community enjoyed a few moments of laughter and desserts.
Seniors who received cords for graduation are Yasmeen Abouelnaja, Yusuf Abouelnaja, Talia Adelsohn, DeRonde, Alexander Gough, Esther Gratia, Abigail Insana, Lynn Isaac, Jessica Jean-Joseph, Jocelyn, Kampel, Alisyn Knox-Silver, Hailey Miller, Taylor Mills, Nalieth, Narain, Marcus Oshiro, Valentina Pappano, Gabrielle Payne, Nova Pierre Louis, Maya Robinson, Kianna Rodriguez, Ryan Roldan, Christina Sarkes, Grace Soroko, Oscar Su and Brigytte Vigo.
In orchestra, Andrew Chan won the Director’s Award; Anand won the Service Award; Matthew Emmanuel, Caplanis, Danielle Payne and Nicole Ng won the Most Improved Award; and Kampel won the National Orchestra Award.
In choral, Sam Lewis and Christopher Pierre won the Director’s Award; DeRonde and Jocelyn won the Service Award; Crynthia Anderson, Ben-Jethro Pierre, Aden Lugo and Kassie Hercules won the Most Improved Award; Nalieth won the National Choral Award; and James Tibang, Justus Wheatley, Jonathan Vincent, Nalieth, Ben-Jethro Pierre, Jocelyn, Lugo, Anderson and Elena Hause were named to the NJ Region I Chorus.
On the boys step team, Isaiah Moses, Sackey, Trevor Adams, Ben-Jethro Pierre and Jocelyn won awards. In the girls step team, Rhoda Oni, Bianca Glenn, Zoe Azille, Kerenna Jourdain and Mia Anyanwu won awards.
For Ninth Grade Band, Adarsh Jacob won the Director’s Award. For band, Yachsley Larame won the Patrick S. Gilmore Band Award; Gough won the John Philip Sousa Band Award; and Ethan Raymond and Rodriguez won the Service Award. Andrew Strom and Owen Butler were recognized for being named to the North Jersey Area Band.
For marching band, Narain and Donagher won the Drum Major Award; Larame won the Drum Captain Award; Anand won the Pit Percussion Captain Award; and Taylor Brown won the National School Marching Band Award.
Color Guard Captain Awards were presented to Yasmeen Abouelnaja and Magaly Cordero.
For jazz band, Adelsohn won the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award and Narain won the Woody Herman Jazz Award.
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