Approximately 150 student-musicians from the East Meadow School District participated in the inaugural Performance Readiness Workshop series sponsored by the Nassau Music Educators Association from Feb. 5-7. The workshops provided students with the unique opportunity to listen to peers from neighboring districts and receive feedback from professional musicians, including members of the New York Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the Imani Winds and many notable college professors.

Many East Meadow music faculty members were clinicians and presiders for the workshops, including Alexandria DeVries, Zachary DeVries, Rachel Fogel, Caitlin Hale, Gregory Krajci, Colleen Mander and Kaitlin Melker. The district congratulates its own Jessica Shenker, who serves as the president of the Nassau Music Educators Association.

Last year, students in Emily Giglio’s art classes at East Meadow High School participated in the Memory Project, a program run by a youth arts organization that asks art students throughout the United States to create portraits for children living in refugee camps, orphanages and similar situations around the world. Students were given photos of the children and created portraits of them in their art classes.

Recently, the Memory Project released a video highlighting the delivery of these portraits. The work of several East Meadow High School students was shown being delivered to children in Russia, who were thrilled to receive the personalized works of art.

“Seeing something as simple as a portrait making so many people around the world happy is a great feeling,” said student Jordan Saglado, whose work is shown in the video.

Ms. Giglio plans to continue a partnership with the Memory Project in the future, hoping to continue to garner joy through her students’ art.

“It was an absolute joy to see the excitement my class was able to bring these kids,” Ms. Giglio said. “I never expected to see my classes’ portraits in the video, but when I did, it was emotional and heartwarming.”

The video of the delivery can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/503191704/480c71e55a