Faith Youngquist is a talented young woman. The Huntington High School sophomore was recently selected by the Suffolk County Music Educators’ Association as the recipient of this year’s Robert Padgett Scholarship for Music.
Presented in honor of a former SCMEA president, the competitive scholarship with allow Ms. Youngquist to study tuition free for seven weeks this summer at the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Wheatley Heights.
Celebrating its 50th season in 2018, the Usdan center is a not-for-profit summer arts camp that typically attracts about 1,700 students ages 6-18 to more than 40 separate programs.
“Usdan alumni include actresses Natalie Portman and Lisa Gay Hamilton, singers Jane Monheit and Mariah Carey, Tony-Award winning playwright Michele Lowe, Grammy-Award winning producer Adam Abeshouse, Juilliard pre-college orchestra conductor Adam Glaser and members of major American orchestras, dance and theater companies,” according to the center’s website. Visit www.usdan.org for more information.
Huntington sophomore Faith Youngquist.
An exceptional flutist, Ms. Youngquist will formally receive the scholarship award on Saturday at SCMEA’s annual concert for ninth and tenth grade musicians in the Huntington High School auditorium at 7:30 p.m. “She will be performing in that concert, which makes it that much more special,” said Eric Reynolds, Huntington’s director of fine and performing arts.
“I am both humbled and ecstatic to be given such an incredible experience that not all students are able to have,” Ms. Youngquist said. “I believe it is the opportunity of a lifetime and I can’t wait to spend my summer with so many talented people.”
The teenager has developed into an outstanding musician. “I started playing in fourth grade and ironically the flute was an instrument that was supposed to help my asthma, but it is something that wound up changing my entire life for the better, not just my health,” Ms. Youngquist said. “My first teacher was Allison Hubbard and she constantly encourages me to give it my all no matter the circumstance.”
Ms. Youngquist is the corresponding secretary of Huntington’s Class of 2020. A member of the drama club and wind ensemble and the chamber and a capella choirs, the sophomore has been inducted into the Tri-M music honor society.
A longtime participant in the Nassau-Suffolk Performing Arts program, Ms. Youngquist is currently in the organization’s concert band. She’s been singing in the Old First Presbyterian Church’s choir since fifth grade and is now in the adult choir section.
Ms. Youngquist has been singing since first grade and has modified her schedule annually since fifth grade so she can take both band and chorus classes. She began playing piccolo in sixth grade.
Asked to choose a favorite class and teacher, Ms. Youngquist found it difficult. “It’s a hard choice,” she admitted. “It’s wonderful to start my day with band first period with Mr. [Brian] Stellato, but then I have my chamber choir period with Ms. Victoria Garbarino. And this year I worked really hard in chemistry with the motivation from my teacher Mr. [Thomas] Van Bell, who gave me a Pride Award, which was amazing and taught my how much hard work pays off.”