Arts Day offers many opportunities for students and our internal community to try something new. To create, and to appreciate the arts. Likewise, it offers a chance for alumni to reconnect. Through leading workshops, they have the opportunity to showcase or teach a skill. This year’s Virtual Arts Day featured three young alumni eager to share their passions for music—Emily White ’19, Ray Aley ’18, and Julian Dinwoodie ’14. Learn more about each of them and where to follow them below. Thank you to our visiting artists, and we hope to hear your music again soon!
Emily White ’19
While at New Hampton School, Emily participated in guitar class and Contemporary Performance Lab. Frequently performing in the studio and on stage, Emily gained many fans from the Husky community. She performed during Virtual Arts Day utilizing Facebook Live to support the event and share her music. Emily currently attends Loyola University in New Orleans, LA.
“Since I graduated from New Hampton, I’ve joined four bands, and have sold out shows across New Orleans. I am currently working on recording the fourth song for my EP, which I plan to release by the end of the summer.
Music has shaped my life as it has provided me with goals as well as a future career. The advice I’d give to NHS students who wish to pursue the arts is to work hard. Talent is only a percentage of a career in the arts, and if you aren’t willing to put in the work, someone else who is as talented as you will, and they will be the ones who succeed.
Although my friends, family, and favorite musical artists have inspired me greatly, I believe I have inspired myself the most, as in the end, creating art largely relies on being comfortable with who you are as a person. In order to release music, and feel confident with the music you share, you have to trust yourself and your ear the most, as there will always be those who dislike what you produce.”
Where to Follow Emily:
Instagram: @emilywhite840
Ray Aley ’18
Ray was a two-year student at New Hampton School involved with Contemporary Performance Lab, as well as co-teaching Recording Techniques for one-semester with Kyle Masterson due to his experience with Logic Pro and digital audio workshops. He is a content creator and producer, and shared his talents in a Zoom session on Virtual Arts Day.
“Prior to New Hampton, I would have pursued a different degree, and probably would not have followed my passion for music production. While at New Hampton School, I became an active member of Contemporary Performance Lab, I had enough time to refine my musicianship, knowledge of theory, and leadership capabilities. This helped me get into competitive music schools such as Berklee, and Belmont University. Upon graduation, I continued my studies at Belmont, pursuing an Audio Engineering degree.
Every person has some form of outlet for their emotions. Many of my friends would go on walks or runs, but for me, I would make beats. If I was going through something, I could always write about it, and have a way to get the emotions out of me; music was the portal. I find it has become crucial to my mental health and gives me something to look forward to every day.
To any student looking to pursue their passion in the arts, I would recommend keeping your head up. Like any form of art, it is extremely competitive, and only the best of the best succeed. It is really easy to get discouraged on social media by individuals who seem to have it all figured out, especially when you feel you still have such a long way to go. That being said, the best advice I can offer is put in your 10,000 hours, try to work with as many other artists as you can, and understand that your life has a path. As much as everybody wants to be recognized for their work immediately, I think much is to be said about the individual to took their time perfecting their style, and built their success over a lifetime, rather than the 15 minutes of fame and recognition.
I have a difficult time pinpointing one specific great inspiration for my work, as I said in my previous point, I find much of my inspiration comes from a team-oriented philosophy. Understanding that the only way to get better at something is to surround yourself with individuals you look up to was a huge realization and has been crucial to my success thus far. Kyle Masterson was a huge inspiration to me at NHS, all it took was one person to put their confidence in me for me to pursue my passion.”
Where to follow Ray:
“Considering I am a producer/content creator, and not so much of an artist, I only have a few songs out for streaming. That being said, if you look up “Ray Aley” on any major streaming service (Spotify/Apple Music/Google Play), you will be able to find my debut single, “Know That,” along with my EP, “Braeloch,” as of May 15th.”
Julian Dinwoodie ’13
Julian entered New Hampton School as a mid-year in January 2011 and was also an avid Contemporary Performance Lab student in addition to other musical activities and varsity baseball. He helped us celebrate Arts Day with a performance on Facebook Live.
In terms of his connection to music, Julian shares, “I never stopped playing, but music was mostly on the back burner while I attended Cornell University after high school. Today, I attend Berklee College of Music where I study Performance, Contemporary Writing & Production, so music has returned to the center focus of my life.
For NHS students who want to pursue music: get to know Masterson, practice as much as possible, lose your ego.
My first and greatest influence in music was Paul Simon. In recent years I have also been inspired heavily by Tom Misch, Jacob Collier, and many others.”
Where to Follow Julian:
Spotify: Julian Dinwoodie
Soundcloud: Julian Dinwoodie
