by Maria Thomas Staff Writer

The performing arts scholarship is for a select few Jaspers at Manhattan College. Students audition on Accepted Students Days, and those who receive the scholarship are required to participate in two distinct performing arts groups.

For sophomore performing arts scholar Jenn Bueti, those groups are the Jazz Band and the Manhattan Singers.

“You have to go to every meeting that they have, participate in all the events, and do more than the average person would,” she said.

Bueti plays the trumpet, but loves to experiment with different instruments and sounds.

“I tried learning the piano over the summer, but it was harder than I thought it was going to be,” she said.

Bueti’s experience in performing arts began early in her life while she was in elementary school.

“It all started back in the summer before fourth grade. We had a bunch of people from the high school come in and show us different instruments. They had the flute, saxophone, trumpet, the trombone, and other types of classical instruments. I remember going home and telling my dad I wanted to play the trumpet,” Bueti said.

In addition to her involvement with the trumpet, Bueti began acting and singing in the fifth grade, accrediting her beginnings in theatre to her uncle.

“My uncle would always sing with me, which was really encouraging,” she said.

Last year, Bueti did the pit orchestra for the theatre department’s featured musical “Into the Woods”. While this was a great opportunity to meet new people, it was also a challenge.

According to Buetti, learning a new song can take months to master, and in doing a performance musicians are often faced with strict and fast-paced deadlines.

Overall, however, Buetti saw it as an opportunity to grow.

“I loved that music. It was really a great experience,” Bueti said.

One of her favorite memories derived from her time spent at Manhattan College was a fanfare portion of a song she performed for “Into the Woods”.

“I couldn’t do it by the time opening night came around, but I finally got it by the end of shows and it felt so good to be god at what I do,” Bueti said.

Besides her involvement with “Into the Woods”, Buetti has participated in the opening house performance for the Jazz Band, a December performance entitled Lessons in Carols, and several other showcases.

As a qualification for her performing arts scholarship, Buetti participates in the Manhattan Singers, a choral group on campus. She began the choir group her freshman year, and plans to continue her sophomore year.

It is often found that clubs and activities held on campus are a useful source for building new friendships, and Bueti provides perhaps the most realistic example of this.

“I’m not just friends with the performing arts scholarship kids. I”ve basically made friends with all of the performing arts kids, especially the improv group on campus, Scatterbomb,” Bueti said.

Bueti began performing in Scatterbomb the fall semester of her freshman year, and refers to it as one of her favorite groups on campus.

“You do get as lot of friends from your classes, but you do get the majority of your friends from the clubs that you join and the things that you show up to. I’m glad that all of my friends are interested in the same things that I like to do,” she said.