A Family’s Pain Orchestrated into Beautiful Music as Yorktown’s Justin Veatch Fund Awards Six New Scholarships
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
By Maddie Stone
Imagine: a father losing his son at the too-young age of only 17 to a small dose of heroin, a tragedy that changed the course of his life forever.
Jeffrey Veatch lost his musically gifted son Justin, a senior at Yorktown High School at the time, to the tragic drug overdose in 2008. Channeling his grief into action, he founded The Justin Veatch Fund, a nonprofit that awards scholarships to graduating high school seniors pursuing music.
On Tuesday, May 27, the fund announced six new music scholarships for students from five different area high schools. The recipients were selected from a highly competitive pool of applications across 13 schools.
The fund awards scholarships annually to high school seniors within a 40-mile radius of Yorktown Heights, and has awarded 79 music scholarships since 2009.
This year’s awardees are Brandon Ramon of Pleasantville, Laurel Aronian of St. Luke’s, Christopher Cilauro of John F. Kennedy, Will Harris of John Jay, Nicolo Tortorella of Tuckahoe, and Madison Varriale of John Jay.
The recipients come from varied musical paths. Aronian, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, is headed to Harvard, while Varriale, a classical vocalist, will be continuing her training at Juilliard.
While some, like Tortorella (who will be attending Notre Dame in the fall) plan to study music in college, others like Cilauro plan to keep music in their lives in other ways despite focusing on other subjects in school.
Harris plans to take an in-between route, citing how his intended neuroscience path at Dartmouth complements his passion for music. Others like Ramon intend to continue their craft on a professional level, such as through jazz ensembles.
The recipients will receive $1,200 checks, along with an engraved functional metronome, during a program on Wednesday, June 11 at 6 p.m. at Yorktown Town Hall. The event will feature a New York City–based singer-songwriter as the keynote speaker and is open to the public.
This program is designed to help the next generation of musicians pursue their dreams – both in music and beyond – carrying forward Justin’s spirit.
“It’s hard to believe we’ve been awarding these scholarships for 17 years,” said Elena Veatch, Justin’s sister and a JVF board member. “It’s been immensely healing to see something so positive for our community come out of our family’s tragedy.”
