The Rocky Point School District is pleased to announce that Rocky Point High School freshman Jeremy Moriarty participated in the Suffolk County Music Educators’ Association Day of Horn, held at Northport High School on Jan. 12. Jeremy is a member of the 9th/10th Grade Band under the direction of Mr. Vincent Ragona.
This was the 19th Annual SCMEA Day of Horn. This year’s festival featured guest artist Dr. James Hampson. Dr. Hampson, a New York City freelance musician and owner of Hampson Horns, fell in love with classical music while pursuing a combined bachelor’s/master’s in electrical engineering. Also minoring in music, he was taking a Mozart Opera class and first learned about the natural horn, the valveless predecessor of the modern French horn. He became so fascinated with the natural horn in Mozart’s music that he decided to make music his career. He holds a doctorate from Boston University in historical performance on natural and historic horns as the first person in the country to pursue this degree. Dr. Hampson has performed all over the United States with modern and period orchestras such as the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, Mercury Chamber Orchestra in Houston, the Albany Consort in San Francisco, Boise Philharmonic in Idaho, The Cleveland Pops Orchestra in Severance Hall, Cleveland, and numerous other orchestras as an active freelancer.
The event included a clinic presented by Dr. Hampson, a massed horn ensemble and various performances by students and educators from throughout Suffolk County. The SCMEA Day of Horn started as an outgrowth of the horn symposiums sponsored by the International Horn Society. In 2011, the Suffolk County Music Educators’ Association successfully set a Guinness World Record for Largest Horn Ensemble during its Day of Horn Festival. The record was set at 264 horns and is listed in the “2012 Guinness Book of World Records”!
“SCMEA Day of Horn was an amazing opportunity for Jeremy to experience,” Rocky Point High School Band Director Vincent Ragona said. “This year’s guest artist provided a very educationally sound clinic for the horn students, and it is always a lot of fun to perform in the massed horn ensemble.”
“Congratulations to Jeremy for his participation in the SCMEA Day of Horn Festival,” Rocky Point Music Department chairpersons Craig Knapp and Amy Schecher said. “Jeremy is a very talented and hardworking young man and we appreciate his dedication to the music program in Rocky Point. We applaud his accomplishments and we are very proud of him. We would like to thank Mr. Vinny Ragona for helping to prepare Jeremy for this unique opportunity. Our music staff does a great job of going above and beyond to provide such incredible experiences for our music students. We would also like to thank the Rocky Point administration and Board of Education for continuing to support these musical endeavors.”
Date Added: 1/29/2024