Tom Caruso of Smithtown snapped this photo while in Port Jefferson on Nov. 27. He writes, ‘It was nighttime and my wife and son were strolling down the streets in the village taking in the holiday sights. I spotted this doll in a shop window and the lighting perfectly painted the doll’s face against the darkened store’s interior. I couldn’t resist it.
Jennifer Sinz (middle) with two volunteers at her rescue before it closed. Photo from Sinz
By Chris Cumella
While pet services have managed to thrive during times of needed companionship, others have seen heavier tribulation due to the coronavirus crisis.
Reflecting on their beginning back in 2017, Jennifer Sinz, owner of AllAboutPets, a nonprofit animal rescue organization, and Kitten Kadoodle Coffee Café, prepares to close a chapter of her legacy.
“We had to close our affiliated cat café a few months ago at the beginning of November,” Sinz said. “I thought we could continue with the rescue, but my landlord changed his mind about lease prices and kept raising them.”
She and the organizations had to decide whether to stay or not before their landlord’s deadline in November — Sinz chose the latter.
Kitten Kadoodle and AllAboutPets subsist on volunteers only — there is no staff working for pay, but rather only for the animals’ affection and the reassurance of finding safety and homes for their furry friends.
The café offers an ambiance of several different cats roaming around the premises. The customers are encouraged to interact with them, as they enjoy lunches, coffee and other other flavored shakes such as cookies n’ cream, peanut butter, coffee, caramel, mint chocolate chip and classics, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
COVID-19’s expansive reach has dwindled the number of volunteers attending both services from dozens to only one or two a day, according to Sinz.
In preparation for closing, Sinz said AllAboutPets has managed to find homes for most of their animals. The bunnies, ducks and chickens have been adopted out, in addition to all the dogs in the fall. All that remains are a few of the kittens that Sinz said she plans to take if they cannot get them adopted.
Until next year, Sinz will return to foster-home-based sheltering and past and current volunteers of the organization.
She reflected a sense of resilience and hope in knowing that many rescues had to close their doors due to COVID. Still, they would not add themselves to the statistic yet.
Aside from finding chickens and roosters that were abandoned along the sides of roads during May and June, Sinz’s proudest moment was taking in five mother cats that were dumped in the same block. She brought all five cats and their litter back to the shelter at the same time.
“We never gave up with rescuing,” she said. “When so many other people struggled, we took them in.”
Customer Natalie Fronatic said it’s hard to pick a single fond memory of the rescue and of the café.
“Every moment I have spent at the cafe getting to know all the cats and the owners of the cafe have been wonderful and amazing,” she said. “Jennifer loves all the animals in her care, and she tries so hard to get them all their forever homes. She has done so much for them.”
April Zabinsky, a customer and volunteer, said so many animals were able to find incredible homes in the short time the cafe was open.
“Its closing will certainly leave a void in the community and in my life,” she said.
How libraries look during COVID times. Photo from Comsewogue School District
Nine months into the coronavirus pandemic and schools are still adjusting. The school library, a place of solace for elementary schoolers and high school seniors alike, has had to adhere to the new and ever-changing COVID-19 protocols.
Local districts, however, have embraced the changes and have implemented new services that they never would have started if it wasn’t for the crisis.
A silver lining, school librarians across the North Shore explained how the changes have impacted them, their schools and their students.
Alice Wolcott, librarian at Elwood-John Glenn High School, said that COVID changed the landscape of public education, meaning they had to reimagine their space.
“This year we transitioned the book loan program to a digital platform, which will continue to support students’ pleasure and academic reading while still observing COVID restrictions,” she said. “Students can browse the collection online via Follett Destiny [a library management system], and if they find a title they’d like to borrow, they can request that book through our book request form.”
To adhere to COVID rules, the books are delivered in a Ziploc bag to first period teachers.
Since some students are not physically in their first period classes, the district also increased their digital library as a main focus.
Shoreham-Wading River High School librarian Kristine Hanson and Albert G. Prodell Middle School librarian Ann-Marie Kalin created an initiative to meet the need for printed books while reimagining the online presence in concert with OPALS, the open-source library system.
They created a book delivery service at their schools called BookDash, which allows students to electronically submit requests with their student ID. Then, physical books are either delivered to students at Prodell or picked up at the high school library doors at the end of the school day. The initiative is promoted through English classes, and a multitude of book recommendations are available via the OPALS pages, blogs and links.
“Kids are reliant on what’s in the catalog, books that never went out before are going out like wild,” Kalin said. “For the time being we’re making the best of it all.”
With the BookDash initiative, Kalin said students are excited to get their hands on actual books.
“So many kids are so tired of being on the screen and are desperate for that interaction with each other,” she said. “I’m seeing readers I never saw before, and there are so many requests for books. It’s very successful.”
Along with Shoreham-Wading River, other districts across Long Island are using an e-book platform called Sora, including Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School in Rocky Point.
Monica DiGiovanni teaches Sora to third graders in Rocky Point. Photo from RPSD.
Librarian Monica DiGiovanni has been visiting classrooms, having students log into their Chromebooks. She is teaching them how to check out library books with the new service, which enables students to borrow a book and read it right on their devices. Another program, Destiny Discover, enables students to find a physical book in the library and have it delivered directly to them since their libraries are currently not open.
DiGiovanni said that their school libraries have become break rooms for teachers and classroom spaces to accommodate kids in a socially distanced way.
“The library has become an interactive thing,” she said. “Students are definitely utilizing it.”
Although Rocky Point school libraries had to reshape themselves and close the doors to students, Elwood school district was able to open the doors at the high school last week. Wolcott said that right now 15 students are allowed in the library at a time, with designated seating and other stipulations in place.
“The students are really responsive and they’re following all the protocols,” she said. “It’s great to have them back.”
She even sees students, who were not her typical regulars, interacting with the library catalog more than they did before.
“Now it’s nice they’re browsing the shelves,” Wolcott said. “They’re picking books they would not have chosen otherwise.”
Donna Fife, library media specialist at Elwood Middle School, said that early on, the district was keeping library services running smoothly, while her younger students are opting to read more.
“I am seeing names I never saw before requesting books more frequently,” she said. “I know how I feel at the end of the day — I would have a hard time playing video games after screen learning.”
Fife said she thinks students are looking for something tangible now that some are looking at a computer all day long.
“They’re requesting to hold a physical copy instead of looking at another screen,” she said.
Nicole Taormina, librarian at Boyle Road Elementary School in the Comsewogue school district, said that new regulars have blossomed throughout the pandemic.
“They really love browsing online,” she said. “It’s a different experience — they are really excited now because they use their Chromebooks and have their own accounts.”
Taormina said that while the changes have been different, she’s looking forward to some normalcy in 2021, and is grateful for what 2020 helped her with.
“I’ve been able to tweak things,” she said. “And the students have been able to learn things that they may have not been able to learn before.”
Also in Comsewogue, Deniz Yildirim, a librarian at Terryville Road Elementary School, said that teaching her library classes has been different compared to years past.
“It’s been a huge change,” she said. “We can’t hand out worksheets anymore, and we do a lot online to cut down on contamination. No other class can come in other than what’s assigned in this room.”
When Yildirim visits classrooms at her school now, she will deliver books that children ask her for.
“It breaks my heart that they can’t browse,” she said. “But we’re making it work.”
And she said that all school libraries have made progress in 2020 than the past 10 years.
“Publishers, authors and librarians are working very hard to make sure kids are reading,” she said. “It’s the least we can do for them during these trying times.”
Taylor Kinsley, a librarian at Minnesauke Elementary School in the Three Village school district, said their schools have been allowing browsing within the libraries.
She said students have to use hand sanitizer before and after touching the books to be sure they have clean hands, and they reorganized the setup of the library, featuring no reading carpets on the floor.
“Elementary students are always excited to have the freedom to pick the books they want,” she said.
The district sanitizes the used books and quarantines them for about a week before putting them back on the shelves.
“I think normalcy is really important for them,” Kinsley added, referring to her students. “We’re being supercautious so why take that away from them?”
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, right, and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. File photo
Members of a task force meant to offer reforms to Suffolk police met with community members in the 6th Precinct Dec. 8 through Zoom to listen to concerns.
As part of the Suffolk County Police Reform & Reinvention Task Force, members have been hosting Zoom meetings for each of the town’s seven precincts plus East End towns for community comment. Members of the task force include everyone from Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart and Suffolk police union president Noel DiGerolamo to NAACP chapter president Tracey Edwards and Daniel Russo, administrator of Assigned Counsel Defender Plan of Suffolk County.
In a meeting that went on for just under three hours and had over 150 participants Dec. 8, many in the community expressed some fear and apprehension surrounding police, often with people of color citing a different experience with law enforcement members than their white neighbors. A few others shared their general support for police and expressed their thanks for officers’ involvement in the community.
Erica Rechner, director of Opportunities Long Island, which tries to connect youth in underserved communities with jobs in the unionized construction industry, said she mostly works with many young people of color in communities who live in areas with high unemployment, and some come to her with criminal records. The interactions she said she’s had with police have been much different than those of her young clients.
“Their experience with the police department is not one me or my family recognize,” Rechner said. “My experience has been one of safety and security — I’m a white woman. At some point in their shared experiences the police officers are verbally abusive and often escalate to the use of excessive force. There are numerous instances of physical injury while in custody.”
She said she asked these young people to share their experiences at the public sessions, but practically all declined, fearing retaliation.
“Their experience has taught them the police are not meant for them or their community,” she added.
Odalis Hernandez, a graduate program administrator at Stony Brook University, said she was once stopped by police officers at night “with multiple police officers shining a flashlight in every window and asking for my ID and documents,” adding she felt she was being treated as up to no good from the get-go.
“I know of others who have been through much worse,” she said. “We can’t deny that those problems exist, and we need to hear that from all our precincts and leadership. We can’t let the police have a political affiliation because that disenfranchises people in the community.”
Hernandez said such things as bias and de-escalation training should not be a one-and-done class but should be a continuous dialogue for police.
Others criticized the Suffolk School Resource Officer Program, with some speakers saying such officers statistically lead to more physical confrontations and create more of a school-to-prison pipeline. Others said such officers target students who are people of color and treat them differently than white students for the same offenses.
Michelle Caldera-Kopf, an immigration lawyer and managing attorney for the Safe Passage Project, said that SROs have caused “the wrongful detention and deportation of our students.” She said such officers have shared information about students with immigration authorities, sometimes over the heads of law enforcement.
Others indicated more positive interactions with police. Rob Taylor, a member of the Citizens Academy Alumni Association, said police already do a lot of things in the community people are not aware of.
“Suffolk County has gone through a lot of changes over the years, especially since around 2014 — they’re all EMTs, they’ve undergone crisis training,” he said.
Gail Lynch-Bailey, president of the Middle Island Civic Association, said that with whatever reforms take place, “I hope we don’t lose what’s already working in these relationships — community policing is still essential.”
She added that police should look for uniformity on how crime data is presented and distributed at civic meetings, with more emphasis on displays and data-driven dialogue, such info to be published for all to see online.
“Real police reform must be data driven, and that data has to include honest breakdowns of who is being charged and where those charges are taking place,” she said.
Brookhaven Town Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden) said there should be efforts to expand the positive interactions between community and police, some of which includes just talking about what may be going on in people’s neighborhoods.
“These are all things why we need to have our police department out there, doing events, interacting, because that really supports the mission our police department is here to do,” he said.
Others shared their desire for those Black and brown voices in the community to be heard. Erin Zipman, from Stony Brook, said police need to listen to those, envisioning a future where we don’t have to endanger the lives of citizens or officers, and instead focus on treating “the roots of problems instead of punishing them.”
The task force is part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative. This executive order, originally signed in June, cites that every police agency must make a comprehensive review of police departments and their procedures, and address the needs of the community to promote “trust, fairness and legitimacy, and to address any racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.”
The county has an April 1, 2021, deadline to create its reform plan for its police department to be eligible for future state funding.
Malan Breton and Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin at the Vanderbilt Mansion in Centerport. Photo by Bryan Griffen
Singer Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, the great-great granddaughter of William K. Vanderbilt II, has just collaborated with fashion designer Malan Breton on a new duet version of the classic I’ll Be Home for Christmas. The pair performed the song in a music video shot recently at her ancestor’s Centerport estate, Eagle’s Nest, home of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum.
The video was released on November 30. Proceeds will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Vanderbilt Museum.
Malan Breton and Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin in the Vanderbilt Mansion library in Centerport. Photo by Bryan Griffen
Costin is also a composer, songwriter, designer, actress, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. She has recorded five Top 10 singles on the Billboard Dance Club Songs charts and her music has skyrocketed on numerous international charts.
British Vogue has called Breton “the most influential designer you’ve never heard of.” He is also a film and music video director, columnist, costume designer, pop-music performer, and a television and film producer and actor.
For the backdrop of her new video, Costin selected the Vanderbilt Mansion and Estate, a place with personal resonance. “Coming to the Vanderbilt Museum always makes me feel so connected to my family legacy,” Costin said. “Willie K., my great-great grandfather, was such an incredible voyager.
“It always astounds me how he had the foresight to preserve all the extraordinary artifacts in the museum. He lived such an adventurous life, and I only wish I had had the chance to meet him.
“The Vanderbilt Museum has stretched way beyond my family to become a place of love and discovery for generations of other families, which is the most amazing gift imaginable.Costin has recorded five Top 10 singles on the BillboardDance Club Songscharts and her music has skyrocketed on numerous international charts. Costin recently became a tech entrepreneur when she successfully launched her digital platform SoHo Muse. She describes her venture as a place “where creatives can help creatives find jobs, find support and stay connected, network and sell their wares on the site’s newly created Marketplace.”
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Eagle’s Nest was built on 43 waterfront acres on Northport Bay. Designed by the architects Warren & Wetmore, who created Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan for Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad, the Estate was built in stages from 1910 to 1936. William K. Vanderbilt II (1878-1944) bequeathed his Estate, Mansion, and Museum to Suffolk County. The Museum was opened to the public in 1950.
On Dec. 11, officers from Harbor Country Day School’s Student Council visited Long Island Elite Limousines in St. James to drop off toys donated to the Suffolk County Toys for Tots program. The toys were donated by Harbor Country Day School students as part of their annual toy drive.
Given the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, more than ever, there was a tremendous need for donations.
Because visitors are not permitted to Harbor Country at this time, and due to social distancing requirements, both the result of COVID-19, this year’s toy drive looked different than in years past. Historically, Harbor Country Day School was a local drop off point in the community and donated toys were picked up by the Marine Corps. This year, Harbor students and faculty loaded toys onto the Harbor Country Day School bus to bring to Long Island Elite Limousines where they were subsequently delivered to Suffolk County Toys for Tots.
Harbor has contributed to the Toys for Tots drive since 1998, when former Harbor employee and former Marine Mike Guido instituted the program. Now retired from the school, the St. James school continues this tradition begun by Mr. Guido.
“We’re honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the Toys for Tots drive and to work … on such a wonderful program,” said John Cissel, Head of School for Harbor Country Day School.
As if! In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Clueless heads tothe big screen Sunday, Dec. 27 and Monday, Dec. 28. It’s not easy being the most popular and glamorous girl at Beverly Hills High. Especially when you’re the envy of scheming Betties, persistent Barneys, and teachers who go postal when you turn your homework in late!
Yet somehow 15-year-old Cher (Alicia Silverstone, above) keeps it all together, even finding time for extracurricular projects like finding a love match for her debate class teacher, and giving a dowdy friend a fashion makeover. But Cher’s tidy world starts to unravel with the sudden appearance of two total Baldwins, and Cher’s square but cute “ex-stepbrother” (Paul Rudd). Now Cher is about to learn that when it comes to love, she’s …well, Clueless.
This special anniversary event includes a bonus featurette about the extraordinary dialogue in the film. Rated PG-13.
Participating local cinemas include AMC Stony Brook 17 in Stony Brook, Farmingdale Multiplex Cinemas and Island 16 Cinema De Lux in Holtsville. For movie times and to order tickets, visit www.fathomevents.com.
Coco Teodoro, owner of Cocomotion yoga studio in Miller Place, has hosted free online yoga classes during hte pandemic, but is concerned about his business.
Photo by Julianne Moser
They went from selling out classes several times a day, to having one person in a class.
Coco Teodoro, owner of Miller Place and Patchogue-based Cocomotion Yoga + Movement Space, said that the virus has hit his industry just as hard as others.
“Our business, just like rock concerts, musicals, they’re in the business of bringing people together,” he said. “And that’s the one thing we can’t do. So, our entire business model is toast because if you’re good at bringing people together, then what are you good at after that?”
Teodoro said that because of the pandemic, he has lost 90% of his business — just one of many things that hit him hard in 2020.
“I kept telling everybody that this is the year of loss for me,” he said. “I lost my mom just a few months ago, then lost my job [at an advertising firm in Manhattan] of 17 years, and then I could end up losing my business.”
But Teodoro tries not to be negative. There’s hope and he sees a silver lining, despite the hardships he and his colleagues are facing because of the coronavirus.
“I always felt that as long as I can teach, I can always make it in this world,” he said.
Teodoro, a certified instructor, has been practicing yoga for more than 20 years. He opened his first location in Miller Place five years ago and added a second space on the South Shore in 2017.
In March 2020, he was all ready to open up his third location on top of that in East Setauket. He took over the second floor of the Country Corner Bar on Route 25A and then the virus hit.
The front of Cocomotion in Miller Place. Photo by Julianne Mosher
While they are still renting out the other two locations, they haven’t been able to use their Patchogue and new Setauket spaces yet.
Teodoro said they are focusing on maintaining their flagship spot in Miller Place because it’s the largest out of the three. They just recently opened up to in-person classes, where they marked spots on the floor six-feet apart. A class that once held nearly three-dozen people can now only hold eight.
“We feel like this is the safest place to practice,” he said.
And it’s been hard, he said. Early on in the pandemic, Teodoro had more than 20 instructors on his payroll, now he has just two — who are doing their classes for free. Since March, he and partner Jane Irvine were putting out over 500 yoga classes online for no charge.
“We’re actually going out of business and working at the same time,” he said. “We’re literally staying here so we can hold on to the community that we built.”
And that community has become their family.
“We know every single person,” Irvine said. “We know what’s going on in their lives. We know their children, we know what’s happening. So, we’re here, and we say that we love this family. This is our family.”
Irvine said the community has been as supportive as they could be during this difficult time, and while the business is struggling, the teachers at Cocomotion just want to make others feel better because they know of the impacts stress can cause someone.
“Pre-COVID, people would have multiple memberships,” Teodoro said. “They’d have a membership at the local gym, then they’d have a membership at the yoga studio, and then they might have a psychiatrist, as well.”
That’s how this studio is different than the rest, adding, “We decided to squeeze all three of those in.”
Irvine said that now more than ever, people need a ritual.
“People need something to devote their time to, otherwise the mind is just going to go crazy,” she said. “It gives you a focus, a point in your day to do something to take care of yourself.”
Cocomotion’s free classes are still available on their social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, but he’s encouraging people to take advantage of the sacred space he worked half a decade on in Miller Place.
“Everything that we’ve built is our dream,” he said. “So yes, we’re going to struggle — everybody’s struggling at this moment in time. But ultimately, we still get to wake up and have this community that we love and do what we love to do.”
Marianne, left, and Justin Bakewicz, second from left, along with Anna Montauredes, right, are finally owners of the Bakewicz Farms in Wading River after years of work. Photo from Justin Bakewicz
A local family farm is staying pastoral and in the family.
The Bakewicz family announced the purchase of their small 11-acre farm on Route 25A in Wading River Dec. 15. For more than three years, Justin Bakewicz and his mother Marianne have cultivated vegetables as well as a big following among North Shore locals. Justin said they closed on the property Monday, Dec. 14.
“Everybody’s superexcited,” he added. “I’m just stoked.”
The 26-year-old farmer has been working the land for the last few years. The property, that borders the thin two-lane stretch of Route 25A in Wading River is surrounded by residential homes. Over the last few years, the Bakewicz family has gained renown for their kid-focused activities, from corn mazes full of cutout pop culture characters to barrel train and farm animals. Many of those animals, including two calves, Woody and Buzz, were rescued and brought to Long Island by Strong Island Rescue’s Frankie Floridia after they were slated to be killed at a farm upstate.
Rescuing animals is also how he met his then-girlfriend and now-fiancée Anna Montauredes, a fellow agriculturally minded person from Smithtown. She helps Justin with the hard work of keeping the farm running.
In early 2019, the owners of the property, Rocky Point-based Manzi Homes East construction company, announced there were proposals from TradeWind Energy to build solar batteries on the property. Previously the owners had put in proposals to the Town of Brookhaven to build a new residential section on that land.
The Wading River Civic Association pulled their support for that energy project, and Justin Bakewicz said the proposal did not get far with the town.
Rocky Point-based attorney Steven Losquadro, who represents the Manzi family, said that his client is “very pleased with the result and specifically made great concessions to allow this to happen,” adding that the developers had other offers with much bigger dollar signs.
“They decided to forego many other more significant offers and also decided to forego the money they would earn from building homes on the parcel in order to keep this as a farm for the community,” Losquadro said. The Manzis are “from the area, and they have lived here forever. They wanted it to stay a farm, so it’s a great result for everyone, and most importantly the community’s happy.”
Bakewicz said they are selling the development rights off the property so it can be served as a farm from now onward, though they are keeping 1 acre in the back available for some future development. That solar battery project was originally pitched as just two solar batteries along the north side of the property, leaving the rest as a farm. He said newer proposals showed such a project would effectively have left only the farming family with their parking lot and playground.
Bakewicz is now fully committed to being in that community, even potentially buying a home next door to the farm. He said he is looking forward to the next few years, where he has big plans. He is working on acquiring a liquor license to put a bar inside a corn silo. He also plans to expand the playground area and potentially build a horse barn, adding that he’s talking with some in the community who have kids with autism to allow them to ride horses.
“We’re just telling people to support the local farms,” he said. “Like, it’s not just for me, but it’s down the road. People are going to the grocery store [and you watch] them load up with all this garbage produce picked weeks ago.” From a local farm, he said, “for just a few cents more, you know where it came from.”
Following the success of her recent single “Optimist,” which went to #50 on Mediabase’s Top 40 Radio chart and was featured by Just Jared Jr. and American Songwriter, 15-year-old singer/songwriter and Broadway alumna Ava Della Pietra has released a live performance of “Christmas Tonight,” her beautiful and uplifting song about the magic of the holiday season. “As we near the end of an extraordinary difficult year,” Ava explains, “I hope this song will remind us of some of the little joys that are still available to us – a fresh snow, shimmering lights – and the hope of friends and family coming together next year to celebrate once again.”
Named one of Tiger Beat Magazine’s “Best Holiday Songs” alongside Alessia Cara, Jonas Brothers, and Liam Payne, “Christmas Tonight” was written with the help of producing partner Will Hicks (Ed Sheeran, Jamie Lawson), who said “it has all the ingredients of a new Christmas classic.” The song was streamed more than 32k+ times in just a week after its release, leading Newsday to call Ava a “Rising Star.” One of fifty songs that Ava has written, and the first of ten already produced, to be released in the coming months, the live performance of “Christmas Tonight” is a fitting follow-up to “Optimist,” an inspiring new song about keeping a positive mindset that Just Jared Jr. called “perfect for the time we’re in right now.”
“I wrote ‘Optimist’ because there are a lot of problems that face society today,” Ava told American Songwriter. “No matter how hard it gets, we need to realize that we are one community, and together, we can have hope for a better future. With all the adversity, we must take action, rise above, and know that we will be alright. We all need a little optimism right now.”
“Optimist” will be featured on Ava’s debut EP, slated for release later this year. Featuring material she collaborated on with producers Will Hicks, Justin Gray (Avril Lavigne, Mariah Carey), Adrian Gurvitz (Andra Day, Jesse McCartney, Cheetah Girls), and Brian Malouf (Michael Jackson, Sabrina Carpenter), the EP will also feature songs like “Forgotten,” dedicated to the people of Puerto Rico suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, and “Home,” inspired by the devastating stories of families torn apart on the southern border.
A multi-instrumentalist who plays piano, bass, guitar, violin, and ukulele, Ava began performing at age four and writing songs at age five. She performed on the national tours of Les Misérables and White Christmas before joining the original cast of Broadway’s School of Rock, and has been featured on Good Morning America, Sesame Street, the Tony Awards, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and more. Ava has performed at the Sundance Film Festival, the Great South Bay Music Festival, the New York Tennis Open, and at Madison Square Garden in front of 20,000 Knicks fans, as well as at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, New York, and in front of a sold-out crowd at NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall. Most recently Ava was featured on the soundtrack for Secondhand Lions: A New Musical, and also launched “Talking Tunes with Ava Della Pietra,” a new music column with Teen Kid News, where she is reviewing popular hits.
A supporter of both local and national charitable organizations, Ava is dedicated to advocating for young people, inspiring others to believe in themselves and follow their dreams. For more information on Ava Della Pietra, please visit https://www.avadellapietra.com/