Public service up next for talented teen oboist from Port Jefferson

Eight years of practice, practice, and even more practice earned Port Jefferson teenager Madison Testa and her oboe the spotlight last month where only hard work leads to entry — Carnegie Hall.

For Testa's next overture, she'll be performing again, except this time, it will be public service in the form of a 7 p.m. concert Friday at the Port Jefferson Village Center to benefit survivors of sexual violence.

Testa, 17, will ask the attendees at the free concert she arranged to donate to ECLI-VIBES, an Islandia-based nonprofit that supports survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence and human trafficking. In between classical arrangements performed by Testa and her teen peers — either solo, with piano accompaniment, or in small orchestral groupings — advocates from the nonprofit and officials with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office will discuss domestic and sexual violence.

'A rising issue'

“I’ve been to parties for people my age, I’ve heard stories,” Testa said. “It’s just definitely a rising issue that I think should be talked about more.”

Teenagers and young adults need more education regarding warning signs of abusive relationships and how to stay safe in an era when “dating culture has really just turned into hookup culture," Testa said. She also wants teenage girls and young women to know how to stay safe in social settings where alcohol and drugs are present and can dim one’s ability to consent to sexual activity.

Incidents of intimate partners abusing women have risen on Long Island since the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsday reported last fall. Advocates recently told Newsday this trend has continued and more resources are needed to serve survivors islandwide. The Safe Center LI, a Bethpage-based nonprofit dedicated to survivors of domestic violence, permanently shuttered its shelter and other services on March 14, according to a message on its website, which directs survivors to myriad agencies for assistance.

The closure of The Safe Center as a central hub for victims in Nassau County has led to an increase in callers to ECLI-VIBES’ Hopeline, according to Heather Parrott, the nonprofit’s director of development who also is director of the group's sexual assault forensic examiner program. The Hopeline received 559 calls in March, a record figure that was shattered in April with 626 calls, according to records stretching back four years. ECLI-VIBES helped more than 4,000 survivors last year through various services — processing restraining orders, collecting DNA evidence following assaults, and access to emotional support counseling and a food bank — and has recently seen an alarming uptick in a demographic Testa hopes to reach.

“In the last couple of months, we’ve actually seen a big increase in sexual assault between the ages of 11 and 17,” Parrott said.

Vulnerable to abuse

Middle school, high school and college-aged individuals are vulnerable to viewing warning signs of abusive behavior as a “romantic or a kind gesture,” said Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Melissa Grier with the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau.

“Controlling behaviors … on their face may not seem so harmful, but they can lead to dangerous patterns of abuse that young women may be scared of or afraid to speak out against,” Grier told Newsday.

Sue Levine, of Bay Shore, is scheduled to speak at the Friday night concert. Levine said she ignored the early warning signs of abuse in a past long-term relationship. Seeking help and talking about situations like hers are less taboo in 2025 than they were more than two decades ago.

“I wish it had been like this when I needed help,” said Levine, who now serves ECLI-VIBES as vice president of the intimate partner and domestic violence survivor advisory board and a volunteer rape crisis counselor. “I never talked about it. I didn’t know where to go.”

After she graduates next year from the Earl L. Vandermeulen High School, Testa, who performs with the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra and the New York Youth Symphony, said she hopes to attend college with a dual major in oboe performance and another study area that will bolster her advocacy work for survivors. Her parents, Armand and Jennifer Testa, helped their daughter connect with local businesses that are donating food and promoting the concert.

“While I’ve been proud of her musical ability … in the past, I am humbled and proud of her drive and commitment and character,” Armand Testa said. “I always knew Madison could change the world. We just didn’t know how.”