Schreiber Student Wins Concerto Competition

A Schreiber High School student from Port Washington will be a featured soloist at the June 8 Long Island Youth Orchestra concert at Walt Whitman High School’s Performing Arts Center in Huntington Station at 2 p.m.

Clarinetist Ethan Usoskin is among three winners of LIYO’s solo competition. He will perform the 1st movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Pianist David LoNigro, of East Meadow, will perform the 1st movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Violinist Kaitlyn Shin, of Jericho, will perform the 3rd movement of Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3.

LIYO Music Director and Conductor Scott Dunn will conduct. In addition to the featured soloists, the concert will include Nicolai’s Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor, Glazunov’s March, Op. 76 and Sibelius’ Finlandia.

Usoskin is currently LIYO’s principal clarinet. He began studying clarinet at 9. His primary teachers are Meryl Abt and Jon Manasse. A Port Washington Schreiber High School senior, Usoskin has long had a champion in Band Director Mark Brenner.

This summer Usoskin will serve as a music staff intern at the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. Usoskin has performed in NAfME’s All National Honors Ensembles Concert Band in Nashville, Tennessee, NAfME’s All Eastern Honors Band in Hartford, Connecticut, and served as the Concertmaster of the New York All State Symphonic Band in Rochester, New York, where he was also chosen as an alternate for Eb clarinet. He has sat first chair in multiple Nassau All County ensembles. Ethan is the first Long Island Music Hall of Fame Marian McPartland Scholarship recipient. He subs with Atlantic Wind Symphony, a professional wind ensemble. In addition to LIYO, Usoskin performs with Nassau Suffolk Performing Arts Wind Symphony.

Port Washington will be well-represented at Sunday’s concert. LIYO violist Alex Horn, a sophomore at Schreiber High School, will perform with the orchestra.

The Long Island Youth Orchestra, which was founded by Martin Dreiwitz in 1962, has nearly 100 outstanding talented teenage players representing nearly 40 Long Island communities from Nassau and Suffolk counties. The Long Island Youth Orchestra, which is in residence at LIU Post, rehearses weekly and presents a series of four concerts each season. Susan Deaver is LIYO’s principal guest conductor and executive director.

Tickets priced at $15 for Adults and $10 for Students/Seniors will be available one hour prior to the concert in the lobby of the Walt Whitman High School’s Performing Arts Center. To reserve tickets in advance, please e-mail LongIslandYouthOrchestra@gmail.com For further information call (516) 299.3174, or visit the orchestra’s website at www.liyo.org