Superintendent’s Artist of the Week: Lionel Wolfe
Warwick Valley High School student Lionel Wolfe received some good news before his senior year even started. In August, he was chosen for the 2022 NAfME (National Association for Music Education) All-National Mixed Choir. The NAfME All-National Honor Ensembles represent the top performing high school musicians in the United States.
In November, Lionel will travel to the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland for four days of rehearsals and performances under the leadership of top conductors in the field of music education.
“I’m excited about going,” said Lionel. “It’s a really cool opportunity.”
At WVHS, Lionel sings with the Meistersingers and also plays the saxophone and piano. He started taking piano lessons with Ann Lewkiewicz when he was very young.
“I started taking lessons with her when I was 5, about to turn 6, so it’s going on 11 years now’” Lionel said. “She really got me loving music, and that was sort of my start. I’d like to thank her and also (WVHS music teachers) Ms. Hanson and Ms. Shafer.”
Lionel submitted an audition video of him singing one mandatory acapella song and one optional song to NAfME to be considered for national honors.
“I felt pretty good about the recordings,” said Lionel, who was an alternate last year. “I had auditioned for it the year before, and I felt a little bit rushed. But this year, I felt a lot better prepared because I understood the process.”
“Lionel is one of the most mature and accomplished musicians I have worked with,
said WVHS music teacher Noreen Hanson. “He excels at everything he touches! Besides being an incredible musician, he is also academically at the top of his class.”
This year Lionel is taking AP Physics, AP Calculus BC, AP Government and Politics and AP Literature and Composition. He plans to study engineering in college.
“It’s always a balancing act trying to prep for engineering and there’s lots of focus on that,” Lionel said. “But at the same time, I love music so much and it’s become such an integral part of my life that I also don’t want to lessen that in any amount. I’ll be lucky in that I can keep music as something that I’m passionate about and that I can have fun with.”
Lionel became interested in engineering because of his brother, who is a computer engineer. Lionel plans to concentrate on mechanical engineering. He is looking at colleges including Northeastern, Boston College and Villanova.
“I want to try to be involved in technological innovation, especially when it comes to protecting the environment,” Lionel said. “Natural disaster recovery – that’s a field that I’m very interested in.”
Lionel is also the treasurer of the Drama Club. He played the voice of Audrey the plant in last spring’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” He won’t be appearing this fall in “Goldilocks and the Three Pigs” because the play falls on the same weekend as the All-National Mixed Choir concert.
