Riverhead High School music students earn top honors in Philadelphia
Riverhead High School musicians returned from Philadelphia with first-place finishes, top ensemble honors and two standout solo awards.
Riverhead High School’s music students came home from Philadelphia with a result that reached far beyond a school trip keepsake: multiple superior ratings, first-place finishes and top ensemble honors at the Music in the Parks festival.
The wind ensemble won first place and was named Best Overall Concert Band. The jazz ensemble also took first place and earned Best Overall Jazz Ensemble honors. The chamber orchestra finished first with a superior rating, and the chamber choir placed second with a superior rating. Senior Christian Seymour was named Best Overall Jazz Soloist, and junior Jarell Gilliam earned Best Overall Vocalist honors.
The trip gave Riverhead students a competitive stage outside Suffolk County, where adjudicators could measure the groups against ensembles from across the United States and Canada. Music in the Parks says its festivals are designed as an end-of-year educational experience for school bands, orchestras and choirs, with master adjudicators offering feedback and every performing group receiving a trophy. For Riverhead, the bigger prize was the level of recognition the students brought back to the district.
The district said the Philadelphia visit also blended performance with history and culture. Students explored the city’s historic sites and music scene and toured Temple University’s music program, adding a collegiate dimension to the experience. That combination of travel, rehearsal, adjudication and campus exposure is the kind of investment public-school music programs often argue they can deliver when families and taxpayers weigh what schools produce beyond test scores.
The timing gave the achievement added weight in Riverhead, where school budgets and the tax cap remain part of the public conversation. Earlier this month, the Riverhead Central School District was named a Best Community for Music Education for the fourth straight year by the NAMM Foundation, a separate recognition that points to sustained district emphasis on music instruction. The district had also received the distinction for the third straight year in 2025.
Taken together, the Philadelphia results and the latest national honor present a clear picture of what Riverhead’s music program is producing: students who can perform at a high level, travel with discipline and return with measurable recognition. For a district under the same fiscal pressures facing schools across Suffolk County, that is more than a trophy case moment. It is evidence of an arts program that is still delivering.
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