Something magical happened over the April break. Four students from Whitman’s Collective Recording Studio Program, seniors Alex Feliciano, Andrew Lorente, Andrew Fogel and Chris Macaluso, along with the club’s co-advisors Matt Hoffman and Vito Monti, were given a special invitation to the legendary Apollo Theater in Manhattan. While there, they went backstage and participated in workshops with the best of the best in the music industry, working with award winning musicians and cutting edge professionals in audio engineering and production.
This once in a lifetime experience would not have happened if it weren’t for our very own, Reggie Young. Since December, Reggie has been working twice a week as a guard on Whitman’s robust security team, and already he has cultivated meaningful relationships with the students, and forever impacted the lives of four Whitman student musicians.
You would never know it because of his humble and unassuming nature, but Reggie is a world class bass guitarist and Grammy award winning artist who has played and recorded with the likes of legendary artists such as Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder and Lenny Kravitz, to name just a few. Not only does he have a famous signature bass from Fodera Guitars named after him, but while at the White House, he met and played music for President Barack Obama at his second term celebration. Reggie has served as the Musical Director at Showtime at The Apollo for Fox TV, featuring legendary host Steve Harvey, with Ray Chew Director of Music, and has worked as the resident bass guitarist there for more than twelve years.
It was an unforgettable night in Harlem for The Collective Recording Studio Club. After the students finished workshopping backstage with Reggie and his all-star cast of musicians and engineers, students and teachers shared a dinner in Harlem at the famous Chocolàt with Reggie and his two daughters, Kylah and Taylor, who are honor roll musicians and athletes here in the South Huntington District. The night crescendoed when the group returned to The Apollo to watch Reggie perform at the world famous Amateur Night Concert.
Collective students and Whitman staff who attended are still reeling from the once in a lifetime experience. Mr. Pipolo, who was in attendance, expressed his gratitude after “hanging inside the hallowed space of Harlem and the Apollo,” and Mr. Shepherd remarked upon the evening as a “genuine celebration of the arts, culture, music, food and friendship.”
Senior Andrew Lorente said, “it was truly an incredible experience and one of the best moments of my senior year,” while Chris Macaluso, who’s attending The Crane School of Music next year said, “the Apollo trip for me felt like a dream come true. I’m very big into a lot of the jazz stars of yesterday so to walk through the back halls where greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday performed was truly a once in a lifetime experience.”
Senior Andrew Fogel, who will be majoring in composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston next year said, “going to the Apollo was an illuminating and learning experience” and “having the opportunity to connect with true professionals with my friends and teachers in Harlem was one of the most valuable experiences I could have gotten in high school.” Collective President, Alex Feliciano, said as you walk through the Apollo, “you can feel Ella Fitzgerald, you can hear James Brown and Stevie Wonder.”
In the coming weeks Reggie and his daughter, Taylor, who attends Stimson, will join The Collective Recording Studio Club in the new Studio B to play bass and sing on a new student-teacher collaboration track led by senior Jaren Smullen; the ambitious track will feature over a dozen Whitman vocalists and musicians.
Whether it be performance and production or engineering and recording, for almost a decade, the Collective Recording Studio Program has served the South Huntington Community by providing students and faculty alike an outlet to express and develop their love of music.
Thank you to our own Reggie Young for this unforgettable experience, guitarist, keyboardist and Sub MD Matt Oestreicher, keyboardist & MD Michael Mitchell, drummer Daiquan Davis, Amateur Night Producer Marion J. Caffey, Amateur Night Coordinator Kathy Jordan Sharpton, House Sound Chief Engineer Norman,and to the whole team at the Apollo Theater for welcoming our students and teachers!
South Huntington resident, world class bass guitarist, and Grammy award winning artist Reggie Young led the way as the group walked through Harlem.
Seniors Andrew Lorente and Andrew Fogel got a close up look at the sound board and production equipment behind the scenes with main house sound Chief Engineer Norman at the legendary theater.
The Collective President, Alex Feliciano (left), guitar in hand with guitarist Matt Oestreicher.
Tradition has it that every performer who comes out on stage at the Apollo touches the "Tree of Hope" for good luck. The story is that when the tree was chopped down in 1934, the man who ran the Apollo Theater's amateur night at the time took a sliver of it, mounted it and brought it onto the stage. Its original green leaves represented luck and money and actors used to pull leaves from the tree in hopes of making money by getting the job after their auditions.