Way to Go! Syosset student selected to attend YoungArts Week

A Syosset High School student was among 138 finalists nationwide in a competition that recognized the country's most accomplished young visual, literary and performing artists.

Michael Sabatino, a senior, was the sole finalist from Long Island in YoungArts' 2023 Competition and received a $1,500 cash prize for his excellence as a Classical tenor. YoungArts is a Miami-based organization that strives to help nurture emerging high school artists.

To get selected, Sabatino submitted recordings of himself performing four songs — including Gaetano Donizetti's "La zingara" and Johannes Brahms' "In Waldeinsamkeit" — that were reviewed by a panel of discipline-specific artists.

As a finalist, Sabatino attended National YoungArts Week in Miami in January. There, he and his peers participated in master classes with various artists and performed in a concert at the New World Center.

"It was crazy to be surrounded by so many people on such a high level," said Sabatino, 17. "The thing about singing that I love is that it's just there. I don’t have to have an instrument, and I don't have to have people with me. It's just there and it can be anywhere."

Sabatino's other musical achievements include being a two-time finalist in a competition coordinated by Classical Singer magazine and being the top male vocalist in his grade level at a competition coordinated by the New York Lyric Opera Theatre — the latter of which resulted in him performing at Carnegie Hall in 2019.

— MICHAEL R. EBERT

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.