By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
Sadie Fridley, a student at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, recently earned the top honor at the 10th annual Songbook Academy.
The week-long academy wrapped up in late July with Fridley, a rising junior, attaining the title of Songbook Youth Ambassador.
“I feel really, really honored,” Fridley said. “Seeing all the incredible talent that was there, I never expected that I would get selected in that way.”
Hosted by the Great American Songbook Foundation in Carmel, Indiana, the Songbook Academy exists as the nation’s only youth music intensive dedicated to the standard repertoire of jazz, Broadway and Hollywood.
This year marked Fridley’s second time participating in the selective program’s workshops, all led by professional mentors.
“I definitely went in this year with a more open mind, and I knew what was going to happen,” she said. “It was easy for me to adjust quicker.”
The application process entailed the submission of a pair of audition videos using two Great American Songbook tunes with contrasting styles.
In Fridley’s case, her renditions of the World War II-era ballad “You’ll Never Know” and the more upbeat composition “Day by Day” secured her a place among 40 high school-aged participants from various parts of the country.
She said she took a liking to the two songs after finding their sheet music in an issue of Reader’s Digest handed down from her great-grandmother.
At the academy, the 16-year-old Fridley became one of 10 finalists chosen after the week’s Thursday showcase.
Based off her performances of “You’ll Never Know” and “Day by Day,” a panel of judges bestowed on Fridley the academy’s highest distinction at the conclusion of the Saturday night finals concert, which took place in front of a near-capacity crowd inside the 1,600-seat Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts.
Introduced to jazz by her father and led to musical theater by her mother, Fridley said she grew up appreciating the music of Judy Garland, Cole Porter and Ella Fitzgerald.
Fridley said her piano teacher Tom Reitano encouraged her to apply to the Songbook Academy these past two years.
Now she has a year of high-profile performances ahead of her, some alongside five-time Grammy Award nominee and founder of the Great American Songbook Foundation, Michael Feinstein.
Past Songbook Youth Ambassadors have sung the national anthem at NFL games and performed at such venues as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
Joining Feinstein as mentors at the academy were Broadway stars Laura Osnes and Michael McElroy, Grammy winners Melissa Manchester and Sylvia McNair, and pianist-composer Nat Zegree.
Fridley said her peers and mentors made the academy feel more supportive than competitive.
At F-M, Fridley participates in choir, the thespian society, the school musicals and an improv troupe.