Cape senior wins scholarship to further music education studies

Mackenzie Vitolo of Milton, a 17-year-old senior at Cape Henlopen High School, has been awarded a $1,000 scholarship by the St. Cecilia Music Guild, an outreach ministry at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Lewes.

Vitolo will enroll at Towson University in Maryland this September to work toward a degree in music education. During the past year, she taught middle and elementary school students as part of her senior-year internship.

“My love of music and interest in becoming a music teacher began at age 11,” she said, describing the encouragement she received from music teachers in both middle and high school. “I fell in love with music and performing, and in the past several years I’ve been involved in marching, symphonic, concert and jazz bands, as well as all-state and now the semiprofessional Delaware Winds Ensemble.”

Vitolo played clarinet with the symphonic and concert bands in her first years at Cape, followed by tenor saxophone with the jazz ensemble and jazz band. As a junior and senior, she was drum major in the marching band.

Her last high school appearance will be at the school’s spring concert at 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 18, which features the jazz band, wind ensemble (juniors and seniors), and symphonic band (freshmen and sophomores). “I’ll be playing in the wind ensemble and jazz band, while also getting to conduct a piece for the symphonic band,” she said.

Last summer, Vitolo attended New England Music Camp where she studied conducting with Dr. William Staub from East Carolina University and Dr. Christopher Cicconi from Towson. “I’m fortunate to have had amazing music teachers who have had such a powerful and positive influence on me,” she said.

While the St. Cecilia Guild’s mission is to provide eastern Sussex residents with free performances by outstanding musicians throughout the year at St. Peter’s, it also seeks to encourage talented seniors in the county’s high schools to pursue careers in the field of music. In 2021, the guild awarded a $1,000 scholarship to Abby Wilson, a graduate of Indian River High School, to study music at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.