Boston Arts Academy
Boston Classical Orchestra Announces Winners
of Annual Harry Ellis Dickson Award
The Boston Classical Orchestra sponsors an annual competitive Harry Ellis Dickson Scholarship for a deserving Boston Arts Academy student to use for private music lessons. At the orchestra’s April 21st concert at Faneuil Hall, the 2006 winners were announced and publically recognized.
The 2006 winners are violinist Francesca Amadee Caruso (senior) and percussionist Sheldon Thwaites (senior). Honorable mention goes to clarinetist Jose Garcia (junior). They were evaluated by a panel of music educators and BCO Music Director Steven Lipsitt.
Francesca Amadee Caruso began playing the violin when she was five years old. At age nine she began attending the New England Preparatory School. The summer before entering high school she attended a music camp in Ontario, Canada and discovered a passion for chamber music. She currently plays in two string quartets. This summer she will attend the Apple Hill Music Festival at Oberlin Conservatory.
“I have always shied away from competitions and I feel that I have missed a lot as a result of nerves,” said Caruso. “I have never won anything in this regard. Not only does this change my perception and my nerves, but it makes me so incredibly grateful to have played and been recognized. Thank you.”
Sheldon Thwaites’ life has always heavily centered around music. Sheldon and his two brothers interest in percussion and steel drums have been heavily influenced by their father, a member of the Pan Master Steel Orchestra. Thwaites’ formal training began in high school at The Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and continued at the Boston Arts Academy.
“Music has been my guiding light through time of despair and doubt,” said Thwaites. “Its power has affected people from the classical era to the contemporary. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, ‘Music is the universal language.’ “
“We at the Boston Classical Orchestra treasure our relationship with the students and staff at the Boston Arts Academy,” said Boston Classical Orchestra’s Music Director Steven Lipsitt. “To be able to share our energy and enthusiasm with young people at the beginning of their music-making lives is a pleasure and a privilege, and we are always looking for opportunities to deepen the students’ involvement with classical music.”
Past Harry Ellis Dickson winners include:
• Ayeisha Mathis, percussionist (2005 winner)
• Jermaine Tulloch, tenor (2005 honorable mention)
• Anita Murrell, soprano (2004 winner)
• Savannah Barker-Fornal, soprano (2003 winner)
• Emily Tyson, violin (2003 honorable mention)
• Tung Pham, trumpet (2002 winner)
• Carmelo Aresco, tenor (2002 honorable mention)
