Essex County Freeholders Honor Nutley Marching Band

The Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders honored the Nutley High School Raiders Marching Band during its March 18 meeting at the Hall of Records in Newark.

The band was selected to compete and perform in festivities surrounding the New Year’s Day TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, and came away as winners of the $10,000 grand prize, according to a release.

The board’s commendation was co-sponsored and presented by Freeholder Vice President Brendan Gill of Montclair and District 5 Freeholder Cynthia Toro of Bloomfield.

“You put in hours upon hours of work to perfect your field show, and to entertain not only the spectators at football games on Saturday afternoons, but also compete so successfully at band competitions on Saturday nights,” Gill told honorees. “We congratulate you for your awards, for winning the grand prize, and for making all of us back home in Nutley and Essex County so very proud of you.”

“I am so delighted to be here tonight to meet you and to honor the band for its great season,” agreed Toro.

Nutley H. S. Bands Director John Maiello, who was joined by James Riley, the School District’s Coordinator of Fine and Performing Arts, thanked the freeholders for honoring the band.

Maiello explained that the season had been expected to be a rebuilding year and didn’t begin so well, as the band finished 5th out of 6 at its first competition.

“They really are an amazing group of kids; there isn’t a nicer or hard-working group of young people out there,” stated Maiello.

The 2014 Nutley High School Raiders Marching Band is comprised of the following members: Alexander Abernovich, Michael Alvarez, Steven Bain, Michael Bereski, Anthony Borda, Thomas Burrow, Nicholas Cela, Emely Chavez, Amy Ciminnisi, Rachel Alessandra Cordasco, Nicholas Cortese, Anthony Costa, Sam Coulson, Marlena Cugliari, Bryan Dieterle, Alec Duffy, Vincent Elopre, Alyssa Escalante, Ryan Escalante, Ciera Fedell, Brianna Feldman, Frank Ferrara, Ian Frobose, Sarah Frobose, Zachary Gonzalez, Nicholas Harabedian, Jacob Jeong, Andrew Koslecki, Abigail Kostner, Joshua Kuczek, Gregory Kueken, Sabrina Lopez, Joshua Masucci, Michelle Melillo, David Merritt, Ashley Murphy, Josh Norona, John O’Brien, Brandon O’Brien, Xiv Paragas, Domenick Pomponio, Oscar Portillo, Sofia Pramagioulis, Darien Ramirez, Cassandra Rebutoc, Dana Rebutoc, Maggie Redstone, Rob Remuszka, Jacob Rivera, Marquis Robbins, Emily Roberts, Saunak Roy, Saiyam Roy, Catherine Rubens, Sebastian Ruiz, Nicholas Russoniello, Nicholas Salernitano, Anthony Salimbene, Olivia Schiffert, Charles Scorsone, Zachary Sebek, Dana Testa, Larissa Thiele, Alexander Vaporis, Zachary Vaporis, David Villa, Rio Villanueva, Vivian Vu, Daya Wayloo, Maxwell Wechter, Averill Wong, Jordan Woods and Ada Zheng.

The band was led by John Maiello, Director of Bands; Vincent Vicchiariello, Assistant Director of Bands; Josh DeWald, Percussion Instructor; and Aurilla Card, Color Guard Instructor; and also received administrative support from Russ Lazovick, Superintendent of Schools; James Riley, District Coordinator of Fine and Performing Arts and Principal Denis Williams.

Photo courtesy of Lloyd Holmes

Photo caption: Freeholder Vice President Brendan Gill of Montclair (far left) and District 5 Freeholder Cynthia Toro of Bloomfield (far right) honored the Nutley H. S. Raiders Marching Band for its great season during the Freeholder Board’s Wednesday, March 18, 2015, meeting at the Hall of Records. Also pictured above are District 2 Freeholder Wayne Richardson of Newark (3rd from left) and Freeholder President Britnee Timberlake of East Orange (back row, far left), as well as NHS Director of Bands John Maiello (2nd from left) and James Riley (2nd from right), the Nutley School District’s Coordinator of Fine and Performing Arts.