Members
Yuri Lee (since 2016)
Yuri Lee (age 18) is a composer and violinist from New York. She currently studies composition with Manuel Sosa at The Juilliard School Pre-College program and aspires to be a film composer. With unique themes and extramusical ideas, her music tells a story and stimulates the listener's imagination. Her compositions have been recognized by National YoungArts, ASCAP, NYO-USA, the American Prize, National Young Composers Challenge, Tribeca New Music, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, and NYSSMA. Founder of “Music Around Us Project,” where she organizes concerts with young musicians for seniors in an assisted living facility and young children in the community, she strives to achieve her life goal of making people happy with music.
Cara Bordwell (since 2017)
Cara is a 17 year-old multi-instrumentalist and varsity tennis player. She attends Tuckahoe High School, and is a new member of the precollege harp program at Manhattan School of Music. Cara is an avid crocheter and dog owner who loves math, house plants and the color pink. She spent ten days last summer teaching ukulele to children in Zambia, Africa and recently won awards for poetry and orchestra. She also received an award of excellence for her grades and wants to pursue music for her career.
Ella Bordwell (since 2017)
Ella Bordwell is a 17 year-old school student at Tuckahoe High School who has been playing violin since she was in 1st grade. Since 2017, she started playing the drums and her musical abilities have grown immensely. Becoming a member of the Music Around Us Project since the beginning, she has watched it grow and has been apart in many of the performances. She has won the highest-average award for english, awards for global studies, speeches, poetry and an Award of Excellence for achieving high grades all year. Along with this, she has played soccer since she was five- years-old and has grown into an All-League award winning varsity athlete; she has a Football Club in Zambia, Africa named after her ever since her travels to that country in 2019 and continues to fundraise and help the girls stay on a path of strength and promise.
Jessica Kaufman (since 2017)
Jessi is 17 years old and lives in Eastchester, NY. She has been studying violin at Concordia Conservatory with Emily Kalish from age eight and has been enrolled in Concordia’s pre-college program, “The Academy,” since 2018. At twelve years old, she started learning the viola with Katherine Lockwood and Jiwon Kim, and currently studies viola with Lucie Gelinas. Jessi is the principal violist in the Tuckahoe High School advanced orchestra, as well as the Westchester All County Orchestra. In her free time, she learns guitar, mandolin, and ukulele, and enjoys drawing, calligraphy, and writing. Jessi is also very passionate about musical theater and hopes to have a chance to play in a Broadway orchestra pit.
Sam Miele (since 2017)
Sam Miele is a 17-year-old guitarist and violinist. She has been learning guitar for 6 years, and violin for 7 years. She has been studying music theory and guitar with Nick Sochan at Crestwood Music Education Center. She attends Tuckahoe High School where she is a part of the advanced strings ensemble as well as the orchestra. In her free time she learns bass and ukulele, and wants to pursue a career in music. Her favorite bands are Fall Out Boy and The Beatles, and she loves art and drawing as well as her pets.
Jerry Connolly (since 2018)
Jerry Connolly is a multi-genre violinist and composer. He has played Violin since age 6. He currently attends the Precollege Program at the Mannes Conservatory of Music at The New School in New York City, where he studies with Ana Milosalvjevic. He is also a member of the Westchester Youth Orchestra, and a founding member of the Castle Quartet, as well as participated in NYSSMA Area All State Orchestra. Although mainly a classical musician, he performs in many Genres of music including Klezmer, Bluegrass, Jazz, Tango, World Music, and more. He has attended Berklee College of Music's Global String Program to learn non-classical styles and improvisation. Jerry is an avid enthusiast of music history and musicology, specifically relating to composer Gustav Mahler. He is a member of the Gustav Mahler Society of New York and the Mahler Foundation.
Andrew Swenson (since 2018)
Andrew Swenson is a seventeen-year-old cellist, pianist, and jazz enthusiast. He attends Tuckahoe High School where he participates in the jazz band and strings orchestra. He is a fervent reader, and enjoys reading any book he can get his hands on. For his academic achievement and service within the community, he won the New York State Comptroller’s Achievement Award. He is also a proud member of the Boy Scouts of America, and has achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.
Nora Schell Podoll (since 2019)
Nora Schell Podoll is a student, musician, actor, and singer who cares deeply about sharing their love of music and the arts. They play the cello with Catalyst Youth Orchestra and study privately with Charles DuChateau. An avid fan of theater, they have performed in shows like “Les Miserables,” “Rent,” and most recently “Urinetown” with Random Farms Kids Theatre, as well as the Witch in Tuckahoe High School’s “Into The Woods.” They are a cantor and soloist at St. Joseph’s Parish. In their free time, Nora enjoys reading, gardening, rock climbing, and working with horses. They graduated THS in 2022 and will be continuing their education at Drexel studying product design with a minor in music!
