On Wednesday 11/20, 17 students were inducted into the Tri-M Music Honor Society. These talented new members, along with many returning members, performed multiple amazing pieces in this recital which showcased their incredible talent!
There will be another recital in the spring, possibly one in the winter, and hopefully other events throughout the community and school!
Here are the new and returning members of the society:
New Members –
Jonny Allen
John Barley
Clarence Cashour
Rowan Cooper
Caseem Cross
Amelia Emsweiler
Austin Fry
Maple Gallo
Gabriel Gottloeb
Bailey Phinney
Whitley Kamarauskas
Ella Reed
Matthew Shorb, Jr.
Finleigh Stambaugh
Sophia Wile
Ethan Wolfgang
Sara Youcheff
Returning Members –
Gabrielle Abdill
Dashiell Bedell
Ryan Beschler
Alex Bien
Ruth Brown
Reece Busse
Dylan Dang
Ana Carrara Farah
Jonah Gibson
Cayli Huynh
Meghan Martin
Alexia Purkanto
Marcella Rolle
Isabel Sarsfield
Sophia Scalet
Egan Torres
York Suburban is proud to have these excellent performers in the music program, and they will all do many great things in the future!
On November 22 and 23, the York Suburban Middle school put on their production of “Dear Edwina Jr.!” After the school’s last musical, “The Little Mermaid Jr.” during the 2021-2022 school year, students have been anxiously waiting for another production. Directed by Ms. Andrea Unger and Miss. Hannah Kuhn, the production featured 36 students on stage between 6th-8th grade, and many more backstage helping run crew, lighting, props, and costumes. This show features a young girl, Edwina, played by Maya Rolle, who gives her family and friends advice through 24 musical numbers.
The synopsis of the show can be seen below (spoilers ahead).
“Thirteen-year-old Edwina Spoonapple has very talented siblings. But because of this, she thinks that she isn’t special or talented. Yet Edwina has many talents including leadership, singing and advising, and she combines all of them by directing a weekly mini-musical out of her garage. The topic of these musicals is letters written to her by neighborhood kids who need advice. She gives them advice through songs and dances that she orchestrates with her friends. One of the main themes of Dear Edwina is Edwina’s desire to be in the “Advice-a-palooza” festival because she feels it will prove that she is as talented as her siblings. This is all going on while Edwina’s love interest, Scott, is trying to win her over. But, since Edwina is so concerned about her show, she doesn’t care about Scott. Scott wins her heart by singing her a seductive love ballad as an impromptu performance on the show. The talent scout calls, and asks for Scott to perform at the festival, not Edwina. She is heartbroken when she runs into Katie Spoonapple, who has just run away from the Summer Math Olympics because she was getting made fun of by the other girls. She tells Katie not to listen to those kids, and to do what you love to do. Katie hugs her, and Edwina realizes that love is far more important than getting a prize.” – Wikipedia
The cast worked extremely hard to put together this amazing production. Watching the future stars of YSSD was truly a wonderful thing to see. For most, it was their first chance to perform a musical on a stage. Many of the kids played multiple roles, with only a few playing only one character. This is a big step for many, as not only were they memorizing lines and songs, they were memorizing lines and songs for multiple characters.
This show would not have been possible without the help of the admin, teachers, parents, and adults that worked endlessly with the kids to put on a magnificent production.
Great job everyone! This show was truly amazing. Watching all the young actors flourish and find their voice on stage is always a heart-warming experience.
Often, students hear about others joining clubs just for fun trips and getting out of school and although I think we can all relate to wanting a weekend away from home, our school’s Model United Nations Club is so much more than that. This past November, 15 students from MUN went to the Princeton Model United Nations Conference, accompanied by Mr. Gaeta. Our itinerary included a very long bus ride which we spent talking for hours, door-dashing a bunch of food, playing trivia, and most importantly, attending our conference committees.
For those of you who don’t know, Model UN is quite literally a fake version of the United Nations where you represent a country or a person in a series of committee sessions which can last up to 3 hours, whilst we debate very interesting topics. If you are in a “crisis” committee, the experience is a lot different from the General Assembly, and a lot of students encountered this on our recent trip. On the first night of the committee sessions, I saw my friend Alex Bien who was representing the prince of Transylvania, Francis Rhédey, in his conflict, walking back to his dorm. It was his first time in a crisis committee and it was definitely scary at first; he mentioned how he felt like he was never going to figure it out. Other students in crisis were feeling the same way but after some moral support and advice from our favorite advisor, Mr. Gaeta, they all left with a valuable experience. They actually ended up having a lot of fun in committee for the next few days and grew tremendously as delegates. I want to congratulate all of them on this opportunity!
Personally, one of my favorite parts of this conference was getting to know all of the students from Princeton and chat with them about their experiences and how they achieved their personal goals. It is so valuable to learn from others who have recently gone through what we are going through now: high school. The chairs and everyone who made this event possible are all truly amazing and they completely changed my view of Model UN. We also got to do many fun things, such as send each other candy grams with funny messages and pretend it wasn’t us. Additionally, our last committee session was called Fun-Mun where we played “hot seat” and got to know each other as people, rather than delegations.
This was also my first year going to PMUNC, and I was super excited. It definitely lived up to all my expectations and I am so lucky to have gone with such a wonderful group of students and a great advisor who always knew how to calm us down from stressful committees. I am grateful for York Suburban administrators for helping our clubs and community and for supporting us to accomplish these amazing events. It is truly invaluable to my learning experience.
I would also recommend to any student who is interested to join Model UN to grow your debate, research, communication skills and more. This club has taught me more than I can express, and I am truly so thankful!
Lil Uzi Vert, Ken Carson, and Tyler, The Creator recently dropped within four days, marking last week a fundamental week in rap. In CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler artfully blends elements of musical theater, African-American sounds, and jazz. The album is his most experimental, which is respectable as he does not seem to cater to mainstream listeners. His tenth studio album was not his best, but Tyler continues to excel in storytelling rap. This is revealed in “Hey Jane,” with themes of the emotional complexity of an unexpected pregnancy, similar to J. Cole’s “Lost Ones.” In my favorite song from the album, “Like Him,” Tyler begins with a solo piano to convey the work’s retrospective nature about his absent father. He sings about resembling his dad’s physical and personality traits and samples his mother talking about their similarities.
Tyler, The Creator’s “CHROMAKOPIA” Photo from Artnet News
In Eternal Atake 2, Uzi releases twelve elevated songs. In my favorite song from the album, “Light Year (Practice),” Uzi masterfully produces beat switches, build-ups, and sound effects. As they have matured as an artist, their artistry and progress in production quality have increased. This work falls just below Luv Is Rage 2 (2017). Uzi finally matures and maintains consistency in Eternal Atake 2. The album is a great, easy listen with themes of science fiction. Critics miss Uzi’s gentle melodies, but the rapper moves onto an abrasive tone in their recent music. Overall, the album lacks depth but is an excellent example of flow, rhythm, and production.
Lil Uzi Vert’s “Eternal Atake 2” Photo from Spotify
Ken Carson’s single, “delusional” was an absolute miss. His distorted beat had the potential to create an interesting, experimental song, but Carson muffled his vocals as well. The result was a muddy, grating rap. Hopefully, his future work reflects his past trap beats, not dissonant gibberish. As a Ken Carson fan, I was disappointed to hear his single’s careless production quality and lack of growth as an artist.
If you’re looking for a new listen, check out songs from CHROMAKOPIA like “Hey Jane,” “Like Him,” “Tomorrow,” and “Sticky” and songs from Eternal Atake 2 like “Light Year (Practice),” “We Good,” and “Not An Option.”
