Has Grant been studying tuba with David Fedderly prior to his admission to The Juilliard School, or with someone else?Future Juilliard student proud to blow his own horn
Originally published May 27, 2007
By Gina Gallucci
News-Post Staff
NEW MARKET -- The Juilliard School in New York City is a highly competitive conservatory that has an acceptance rate in the single digits.
Linganore High School senior Grant Piccerillo decided to apply and audition anyway.
In April, he found out he was the only tuba player accepted in the country.
"It was kind of a shock," he said.
Piccerillo, 18, has been playing the tuba since middle school. His band leader asked him to switch from the baritone horn because they had no one to play the tuba. It's a switch he's glad he made.
"It kind of just fell into place," he said.
Piccerillo has been busy this year accepting accolades.
He won the Frederick Symphony Orchestra and Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra Concerto competitions and was also selected as both the All-State and Frederick County's first-chair tubaist.
Besides music, Piccerillo has a 4.0 grade point average, is a member of the National and Spanish Honor societies, an officer in student government, and an Eagle Scout in Troop 1636.
For his Eagle Scout and graduation projects, he cleaned 14 of Linganore's brass instruments.
One instrument was so complex to take apart and clean properly, it took him half the semester to finish it.
With graduation days away, Piccerillo is a little nervous about moving to New York and working with such talented musicians.
"I'll have to live up to that," he said.
What model tuba(s) does he play/own?
Congratulations, Grant!
