Schools
Ridgefield Senior Receives WCYO Scholarship Award
The Ridgefield High School senior was recently awarded a $1,000 scholarship by the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra.
RIDGEFIELD, CT — Violinist Matthew Uy, a senior at Ridgefield High School, was awarded a $1,000 college scholarship by the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra at its season finale concert this month.
The scholarship is funded by parents of WCYO musicians, its Board of Directors, and staff and is awarded based on an essay related to the experience of being a musician. Judged by its Board of Directors, this year’s WCYO essay focused on the role of the musician in contemporary society.
In an essay entitled “The Empathy Within Song,” Uy sees the role of a musician as key to “forging emotional connections” between the composers and the audience and a potential force for good. He wrote, “In a time in which our feelings of loneliness, division and judgement are at their worst, music has the power to develop empathy among us.”
“WCYO's mission includes a commitment to provide youth musicians an opportunity to develop character and grow as people through music,” WCYO Executive Director Ruth Feldman said in a news release. “Matthew’s essay embodies exactly that. Please join us in congratulating him on this award.”
Uy was assistant concertmaster of the WCYO Symphony Orchestra during the 2022-2023 Season, performed in the Charles Ives Music Festival (CIMF at WCYO) Chamber Music Intensive and will attend the CIMF summer program.
As a senior at Ridgefield High School, he is a student of music educator Michael McNamara, and assistant concertmaster of the RHS Symphonic Orchestra. His private music teacher is Mallory Mercier.
This fall, he will begin college at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
