By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
Jamesville-DeWitt High School ushered in the J-D Fine Arts Hall of Fame with an inaugural ceremony in its auditorium on Nov. 26.
Featuring performances from the high school’s chamber choir, the ceremony honored five alumni and three former teachers.
Amy Feldman Bernon
The first inductee to speak was Amy Feldman Bernon, who graduated from the school in 1985.
Bernon said it felt “special” to share the ceremony with her former teachers Ronald Nuzzo and Bonnie Nye.
“Both were gifted at bringing out the best in the students, and both played a role in my decision to become a music major in college,” Bernon said.
Bernon earned degrees from the Hartt School and the Yale University School of Music.
She has had around 100 choral pieces published in the ensuing years.
Bernon served as the director of the Litchfield County Children’s Choir as well as the founding director of the Alamanda Women’s Choir.
She now teaches privately in Connecticut.
Alex Brandt
Graduate of J-D’s class of 2006 Alex Brandt said his time at the high school was mostly spent in the auditorium.
He studied photography throughout his four years at the school.
Brandt said producer Brenda Neuss helped him get an audio engineer job at The Talent Company, while Cindy Shippers taught him about lighting. He also said that Beth Quackenbush, the school’s choral director, changed his life in terms of his career and who he became as a person.
He is currently a lighting supervisor at The Public Theater in New York City.
Rhys Henson
Rhys Henson, a 1974 graduate, played trumpet and sang choir at the school.
In the years since, he found gigs as a freelance player and later formed the band Groove Therapy, which opened for such acts as Stevie Wonder and The Grass Roots.
He also co-founded the brass ensemble Brig Juice and has taught the Brigadiers Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps.
“I’m truly honored and humbled to be part of the inaugural year,” Henson said. “I think the community should be really proud of itself and the school system for being so supportive of music and arts.”
Jonathan Howell
In his speech Jonathan Howell, a 1991 graduate, mentioned being mentored by his fifth grade music teacher Charlotte Haas Quirk.
Howell said she made him come into the classroom to sing instead of giving him detentions whenever he “acted out” in class.
Howell said he took a test in the ninth grade administered by the high school’s guidance department meant to determine the profession a student would be inclined to pursue.
“Mine said sanitation worker, gas station attendant and clerk,” Howell said. “I didn’t want to do any of those things. I just wanted to sing.”
He said he is “eternally grateful” to Nye, whose vocal lessons convinced him of the path he needed to take.
After graduating, he performed with musical theatre companies and in operas. He now operates a private voice studio in Liverpool, sings at about 100 funeral masses a year and performs as a cantor for the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.
Stephen Paparo
Stephen Paparo, who graduated in 1992, said his starting point came in the fourth grade under his music teacher Gina Murano.
He now teaches courses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst helping to prepare music educators. He conducts at the campus, state, national and international stages as well.
“From elementary all the way through high school, I feel like I got personal attention every step of the way,” Paparo said.
He thanked his former teachers, saving Nye for last, as she had given him voice lessons over the years.
“There is not a day that goes by that I’m not grateful for all that [Bonnie] did for me,” Paparo said.
Robert Reals
Robert Reals, an art educator in the district, received the honor posthumously, having passed away in 2016.
Reals taught at Jamesville Elementary in 1951 and 1952 and later from 1955 to 1966. After, he became the coordinator of the district’s art department and spent 25 years with the New York State Department of Education.
His daughter Sara and his son Robert Jr. accepted the distinction on his behalf.
“I’d like to think that some of my father’s greatest works were not his paintings, which decorate our walls and have been shown in various galleries and museums, but his work in convincing students that they had something of value to say,” Reals’ daughter said.
Ronald Nuzzo
Employed as a music educator in the district for 49 years from 1962 to 2011, Nuzzo conducted the pit bands for the school musicals.
As a professional trumpet player, he played in the orchestras that accompanied acts such as Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney.
He is currently the music director for the Phoenix Community Band.
He talked in his speech about his start as a teacher and the stories he gathered over the years involving faculty members and students.
“The best decision that I made in my life was signing that contract that [Superintendent] Harold Rankin pushed in front of me without giving me a choice,” Nuzzo said.
Bonnie Nye
Nye worked as a music educator at the high school for 33 years until her retirement in 1995.
In addition to serving as the school’s choral director, she directed and sometimes choreographed the high school musicals for 26 of her years spent at the school.
Nye also contributed performances and music direction for local productions.
These days, she sings with the Lewiston Choraleers and her church choir.
She decided to sing her acceptance speech at last week’s ceremony.
“I feel so honored to be chosen,” she sang. “I feel humbled and in bliss.”
Paul Rush, one of the creators of the hall of fame, also stepped to the stage during the ceremony.
“We’re beginning to write a story,” Rush said. “Honoring inductees is how we write the story. The story is about the entire Jamesville-DeWitt family.”
