April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
ST. PAUL'S, HANCOCK
Taking note of talented young musician
"I play piano...guitar...my main instrument is trumpet...French horn...and I know a little bit of trombone," recited the eighth-grader from Hancock Central School.
The young musician plays the trumpet in her school band, participates in the New York State School Music Association's (NYSSMA) vocal solo festival and is a cantor at her parish, St. Paul the Apostle in Hancock.
Lily recently scored a 94 on her NYSSMA solo, "He Shall Feed His Flock," an air for alto from George Frederic Handel's "Messiah."
The NYSSMA solo festival allows music students to evaluate their musical abilities, nurture their skills and develop confidence.
Vocal students sing in a small, private room with just one adjudicator and an accompanist. Each student sings a prepared solo with the accompanist; then the adjudicator has the student sing specific scales and short sight-reading pieces.
Practice makes perfect
"She scored better as a seventh-grader than many of my high school students," said Lily's school choir director, Loa Noyd. Ms. Noyd has been bringing students to the NYSSMA festival for 10 years.
Lily said that being involved in NYSSMA has taught her "a lot about sight-reading," and "about being in a room with a judge and having someone looking at you, just one person.
"I like that you can go with your friends and sing," she added. "It's also nice to learn something new."
The teen has enjoyed learning new things since she was a young child. She picked up the guitar early; when she was 10 years old, she auditioned for a short play at her school. The character was a young woman who sang about her love for homemaking maven Martha Stewart.
"That's when I really started singing a lot," Lily said.
"It's really nice to be able to play music through your entire life," noted the young musician. She believes that children should start their musical experiences as early as possible.
Get going
Lily herself has been taking piano classes after school for about a year. She takes trumpet lessons through her school band and learns a little trombone from her father, who used to play. "I just want to learn," said the eager student, who enjoys the process of picking up an unfamiliar instrument. In fact, she's willing to try almost any instrument except drums: "My brother plays [the drums]," said Lily. "I like pitched things more."
"She's a joy to be around, always a good attitude, a role model for the other students," boasted Ms. Noyd. "Having her in the chorus brings the level of the whole group up because people want to try to sing like Lily."
Lily is also the youngest cantor at St. Paul's. She's "not afraid to [sing] in front of the packed church," according to Kathy VanMeter, the parish organist and director of music ministry. "She's a strong singer in the choir. Lily has been a member of our choir for over three years, and has eagerly offered to cantor since the very beginning."
"I honestly didn't even know cantoring was a thing before I started singing in the church," Lily confessed. "Now, I've learned what it does and what it's for and what it is. You sing about church and God. The main theme of the [Mass], you put in song."
Cantoring away
Lily's mother and brother are also very involved at St. Paul's. Her 17-year-old brother, Sam, is a lector. Her mother, Kristin Barron, sings in the choir and is also a cantor, though she claims she doesn't do it as well as her daughter.
Lily thinks otherwise, noting that her mother "has more experience."
Being a good cantor involves "knowing what you have to do [and] having the drive to want to do it," said Lily. "I can help the church by singing. I like that I can perform in front of a lot of people."
"It means a lot to the people to have a cantor each Sunday," her mother told The Evangelist. "I'm just happy that she has the opportunity and experience and can share her God-given talents with everyone."
Mrs. Barron was surprised by her daughter's talents: "Somewhere in that gene pool, there's someone with a good voice. We realized as a baby that she has lung capacity."
When Lily isn't singing for a NYSSMA judge or for the congregation at St. Paul's, she likes Broadway show tunes. "I like 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'Cats.' Those are my two favorites," she said. "You can really sing with a lot of expression and feeling."
Someday, Lily hopes to become a music teacher so she can "teach other people how to do these things. I would like that, because I could pass on my knowledge of musical things to other people."
Music, she said, can "put things into words that speaking just can't really do."[[In-content Ad]]
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