Suffield Art Scholarships Awarded

The Suffield Council for the Arts is very pleased to announce the award of 5 scholarships to the following Suffield residents:  Christine Cannon, Kaitlyn King, Derrick Mathieu, Krista Stepansky and Ben Zavisza. 

This year’s competition consisted of the talents of 8 artists, in musical performances, photography, painting & drawing and dance.  It was held at Suffield High School on June 20^th.  Each applicant presented their work in front of a panel of judges.  This year’s judges included Donna Chaisson, Lynda Montefusco, Paul Pulaski and Susan Thorner. 

The annual scholarship competition is one of the main missions of the Suffield Council for the Arts.  This was our 28^th Annual Scholarship Competition.  Through generous contributions from our members and fundraising efforts, we were able to offer $1,900 in total scholarship funds this year.  We feel that these students are all well deserving of scholarships and worth encouraging in their artistic endeavors.  Each year we hope to increase the funds for this program so that we can help make young artists dreams come true, with next year’s goal for this fund being $2,500.

Christine Cannon is a 2006 graduate of Suffield High School.  Christine performed her audition on the trombone.  Like many instrumentalists, she plays multiple instruments.  Aside from her primary instrument of trombone, she sings in multiple choirs in school and at church, taught herself to play the euphonium, played soccer and was involved in many school extra activities.  She played with the Young People’s Symphony for the past 4 years, with her last two as principal trombonist.  For the past 3 years, the Arts Council has had the pleasure of Christine’s company as one of our student representatives on our board of directors, where she has learned the skills of organizing and promoting artistic events.  Christine is off to Gordon College this fall where she plans to continue her musical endeavors with a concentration in Music Education.

Kaitlyn King is a current High School student who performed her audition on the flute.  She currently studies at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts where she feels she has excelled musically.  She has plans of doing independent study, leaning the saxophone, evolving her talents on clarinet, piano and guitar and performing as much as possible.  She has ambitions of attending college and majoring in a relatively new field, music therapy. 

Derrick Mathieu is a 2006 graduate of Suffield High School.  Derrick performed his audition on Alto Saxophone.  He played both Alto and Baritone Saxophones in the Suffield High School Band and Jazz Ensemble, which including performing numerous solo opportunities.  In addition to the saxophone, he also plays clarinet and piano and has been developing his skills in music theory and composition.  He has recently only begun to tap his passion for jazz music.  He is attending Holyoke Community College this fall and hopes to further his musical interests and talents by taking part in HCC’s partnership program with the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music.

Krista Stepansky is a 2006 graduate of Suffield High School.  Krista presented her photographic portfolio where she showed her progression over the past number of years, in which her expanded subject matter has allowed her to hone her photographic skills.  Krista is like a sponge in that she observes, absorbs and applies all that she learns to her art.  Some of the best skills one can have as a photographer are to pay attention to detail and to be able to see a subject from many different angles.  Not only does Krista have a “good eye”, but she also has wonderful organizational skills.  Krista enjoys trying new things with photography and will only continue to improve with every new endeavor.  She looks forward to her first year of college at Fitchburg State College where she will be studying photography. 

Ben Zavisza is a 2006 graduate of Suffield High School.  Ben performed both vocal and piano pieces for his audition.  This young man started tapping his musical talents with singing and recently taught himself to play the piano.  Ben has a great passion for furthering his musical talents and would like to give back to the community.  Not only has he been involved in a number of musical groups in both school and church, but he has been holding down a 20 hour / week job while doing that.  His hard work and talent helped him land the lead role in the recent school musical.  Ben has great personal drive and is an independent thinker.  Both of which help him lead by example.  Ben will be attending Westfield State College this fall where he plans to study Music Education, so that he can give back to others.

It was wonderful to have the dedication of the applicants, who took the time to prepare for this competition.  They were judged on their talent, presentation and need.  The Arts Council is very pleased to be able to offer these opportunities to the Suffield community.  It is young, talented artists like these that make us keep doing what we do.  We expect great things from these young artists.  Suffield has produced some wonderful artists over the years.  We hope that they have great personal success in whatever they do and enjoy their artistic talents, passing their knowledge and love of the arts to others to further the “cause”.

We hope that you will help us help these artists and others like them by supporting the arts in Suffield and help us reach our goal for next year’s Scholarship Fund.  You can do this by attending our events and contributing to the Arts Council either with your time or money.  Anyone is interested in contributing to this special Scholarship Fund, can either send a check to the Suffield Council for the Arts, PO Box 415, Suffield, CT  06078-0415.  For more information about the Suffield Council for the Arts, mark our website as one of your favorites (http://suffieldarts.tripod.com (no www.))