YOUTH ON THE GO
Students in the culinary arts program at the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center in Port Ewen created a gingerbread village composed of buildings representing a variety of the programs offered at the center. Before embarking on the project, the students started by visiting and researching the school’s programs, designing the layout of the village and using
their culinary math skills to calculate how to increase the size of the gingerbread patterns for their buildings. Above, Kingston school district student Alyviah Lewis decorates a gingerbread airplane hangar. Below, Onteora Central School District student Dylan McIntyre shows off his gingerbread structure that represents the center’s Phoenix program.
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Onteora High School senior Analie Ingalsbe was a winner in the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) All-State 2020 songwriting category for her song “Modern Love.”
A passion for music inspired Ingalsbe to participate in a songwriting and performance mentorship in 2019 She was paired with Donna Lewis, a Bearsville-based recording artist and songwriter. The mentorship concluded last May, but it paid artistic dividends afterward with the association’s recognition of Ingalsbe’s song.
A second song, “Touch,” which Ingalsbe co-wrote with fellow Onteora musician Archie Lewis-Harris, was selected for the finals of the Electronic Music Composition Showcase for the association’s Cyber Summit, which took place from Dec. 3-5. “Touch” also earned an honorable mention in the inaugural National Association for Music Education Student Songwriters Competition.
In a press release, Ingalsbe said she considered herself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Lewis, whose song “I Love You Always Forever” reached the top 10 on the singles charts in nine countries, including the United States.
“Working with Donna was such an incredible experience,” Ingalsbe said in the release. “She really helped me to consider other options when I was in the process of writing a song — to think about
what other directions I could take the song in and see if they were worth exploring.”
Lewis, Ingalsbe added, was a constant source of inspiration. “I go through phases where I just can’t write, and that’s totally fine — as many successful musicians will say, “You can’t force inspiration,’” she said. “But when I would go over to her studio, I never really felt a
lack of inspiration.”
For her part, Lewis said she was thrilled with Ingalsbe’s accomplishments. “I absolutely love it when one of my mentees is chosen for the NYSSMA AllState Composer/Songwriter Honor Concert,” she said in the release. “Last year my mentee Sophia Grinberg was chosen, and now Analie Ingalsbe has been selected. I love our school for having such an amazing mentorship program!”
“Modern Love,” which Ingalsbe’s said was primarily written in her bathroom at home (because of that room’s superior acoustics), not only benefited from Lewis’s creative input, but also from Onteora Board of Education member Kevin Salem’s impressive musical skills. “We went over to his studio, and he recorded a beautiful guitar track for the song!” Ingalsbe said.
Collaborating with Lewis-Harris, who is Lewis’s son, was another highlight of her mentorship, according to Ingalsbe. “Unfortunately, the timing to work with Archie happened to be during COVID, so I didn’t really get a chance to work with him in person,” she said. “However, he made an entire electronic track for my song, ‘Touch,’ and it’s amazing! He’s extremely talented!”
Lewis-Harris is also an alumnus of Onteora’s Community Mentor Program, having completed a mentorship in film scoring in 2018 with David Torn, a film composer, recording artist and producer who lives in Bearsville.
Ingalsbe mentorship has strengthened her resolve to pursue her passion for music.
“I plan to continue writing songs,” she said. “in fact, I plan on majoring in songwriting. It’s my hope for it to be my career!