Student Musicians Play For a Cause

On Sunday at 4 p.m., classical music students from local high schools will give a benefit concert at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor for Katy’s Courage Fund to support pediatric cancer research in honor of Katy Stewart, a Sag Harbor student who died last year.

Classical music students from local high schools will give a benefit concert at the Bay Street Theatre.

Apr. 19, 2012

Carrie Ann Salvi

Classically trained student musicians from three South Fork schools will play in a concert on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor to benefit Katy’s Courage. The not-for-profit was created to honor Katy Stewart, a 12-year-old who died from a rare form of pediatric liver cancer.

The students, ages 11 through 17, have performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall, and will play works by Bach, Chopin, Schubert, Boccherini, and Mozart.

The performers will be Benjamin Pereira, a Southampton sophomore, on violin; Maxfield Panish, an East Hampton High School senior, and his brother, Leo, from East Hampton Middle School, on violin, and from Pierson High School, the seniors Emily Verneuille on clarinet, Grant Kusick on guitar, and Chris Beroes-Haigis on cello, Emmanuelle Benard, a seventh-grader, on piano, and Ella Patrick, a fifth-grader, on piano.

Nat Sassoon, a sixth grader from New York City, will be a special guest, contributing his piano and vocal skills.

All the young musicians already have impressive résumés.

Nate was the winner of Orfeo Piano Concerto competition in 2011, and had his first piano recital at Steinway Hall in New York in 2010 with an orchestral debut in 2011 in Vipiteno, Italy. He was accepted to the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus when he was 5 years old.

Maxfield won the 2010 Elizabeth Brockman Award for Classical Music. He attends the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Program and plays in its Senior Philharmonic Orchestra, and is the concert master for the East Hampton High School Orchestra. Leo was the youngest violinist to perform with Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Suffolk Principal in the 2009 final concert at Carnegie Hall.

Emily is a member of the Sag Harbor Community Band as well as the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Suffolk Principal Orchestra.

Chris, Benjamin, and Emmanuelle all attend Mannes Colleges as well as Pierson. Chris and Benjamin, who took up violin in kindergarten, play in the college’s Senior Philharmonic Orchestra. Emmanuelle focuses on classical guitar and composition. She received the Rising Star Award from the Playhouse Project master class in 2009.

Grant has studied a variety of techniques and genres, most recently dedicating himself to the classical guitar, and Ella studied music at the Ellen Johansen Music Studio in East Hampton and recently competed in the Suffolk Piano Teachers Foundation’s annual competition.

The suggested donation of $10 will go toward programs such as pediatric cancer research, bereavement counseling, scholarships, and a long-term investment in a childhood bereavement center on the East End. Tickets will be available at the door. Donations may be made at katyscourage.org.