AREAWIDE — The selection committee for the Carolyn R. Greenleaf Memorial Fund of Community Music School has chosen two local music students as the recipients of the Fall 2017 Carolyn R. Greenleaf Music Award: pianist Caroline Wholean and violinist Schuyler Dragoo. This award is given each semester to two high school students who have demonstrated exceptional musical ability and motivation, and awards a semester of private lessons at Community Music School in Centerbrook.
Caroline Wholean is a senior at Lyme-Old Lyme High School. Her rigorous academic schedule is supplemented with rowing for the crew team, competing on the math team and playing clarinet in the high school band and wind ensemble. A student of Community Music School for 12 years, she has taken violin and piano lessons and is a member of the String Ensemble. She was recently awarded the Connecticut Secretary of State’s Excellence in Citizenship Award. Caroline plans to continue her music education in college next year.
Schuyler Dragoo is both a violinist and a vocalist who will be entering her sophomore year at Haddam-Killingworth High School. Schuyler has been studying violin for eleven years with Irene Rissi in Waterford. She has participated in the CT Southern Region Orchestra for the past four years, and has attended Point CounterPoint, a chamber music camp in Vermont, for the past five years. Schuyler will be singing with the select choir in school this coming year, and is looking forward to using this scholarship to further her vocal technique and abilities at the Community Music School.
The Carolyn R. Greenleaf Memorial Fund was established at the Community Foundation of Middlesex County in 2008 by her friends to honor Greenleaf’s dedication to music and education. The Carolyn Greenleaf Memorial Music Award is open to students of Middlesex County and the Lymes and is awarded twice a year, based entirely on merit.
Editor’s Notes: i) Community Music School is an independent, nonprofit school which provides a full range of the finest possible instruction and musical opportunities to persons of all ages and abilities, increasing appreciation of music and encouraging a sense of joy in learning and performing, thus enriching the life of the community.
ii) Community Foundation of Middlesex County is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in Middlesex County. Working with charitably-minded individuals and organizations to build permanent endowments since 1997, the Community Foundation has provided 850 grants totaling more than $2.5 million to organizations for the arts, cultural and heritage programs, educational activities, environmental improvements, and for health and human services.