4High School News

FFCS jazz musicians shine at Oneida festival

Fonda-Fultonville High School's Jazz I ensemble squared off against 27 of some of New York's finest jazz ensembles on March 5 at the 23rd Annual Oneida Jazz Festival. And when the last note was played, the F-F musicians struck gold.

The group received a "Gold" rating with a score of 94 out of 100. The high score is especially impressive in light of the fact that the ensemble competed in the AAA Class with musical powerhouses such as Liverpool High School and Henniger High School. In addition several F-F students earned all-star awards for their efforts. Honored were:

• Alto Sax- Tyler Myers

• Tenor Sax- Cody Unczur and Josh Krajewski

• Trombone- Chris Johnson and Madeline Egelston

• Trumpet- Rebecca Fox and Josh Lewis

• Piano- Dillon DeRosa

• Bass- Zach Bellinger

The ensemble was also named the "Best Rhythm Section" out of all high school jazz ensembles that performed.

In addition, Zach Bellinger received one of two scholarships to The University of Philadelphia Performing Arts summer jazz institute.

"This is really the equivalent of (Fonda-Fultonville) playing Shenendehowa or Burnt Hills in a sport and winning ," said band teacher Chad Lenig. "It is not a competition so no one official wins, but as you can see from our awards we did very well. The AAA class is generally High School with over 2000 students. For us to fair that well was almost unbelievable."

<Back