The Vincent Biscoglio Award

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Vincent Biscoglio was a well-known musician/educator in the central Connecticut area during the 1970's and 1980's. He was the band director at Keigwin Middle School in Middletown, and he also taught privately (saxophone and clarinet) and performed as a free-lance musician. He was a very well-loved and respected teacher with a reputation for producing excellent groups and going out of his way for his students. James Barket received his first formal music instruction from "Mr. B" at Keigwin Middle School, and Vincent Biscolgio taught him his first lesson on the electric bass. Mr. B did this to enable James to perform in the KMS Jazz Band. He allowed Barket to use his own personal amplifier, and he used school money to purchase an electric bass. This is only one example of Mr. Biscoglio's generosity. At Keigwin, Mr. B initiated the Vincent Biscolgio Sr. Award for excellence. This award was given in honor of his father and was awarded to an outstanding 8th-grade student at KMS. Mr. B is no longer with us, but James Barket has established this award at WBMS in his honor to continue the tradition of nurturing excellence in young musicians that Mr. B began. The award is given each year to a student who has demonstrated excellence in participation and performance in the WBMS orchestra. It is the highest award given by the WBMS Orchestra, and the names of the recipients are engraved on a plaque that is on permanent display in the WBMS Orchestra room.

The Vincent Biscoglio Award Winners

2001: Christine Lee; Stephanie Hao	2002: Cristina Sung	2003: Nancy Williamson	2004: Aaron Yackley
2005: Joanna Choi	2006: Rachel Zervakos	2007: Nissa Mai	2008: Angela Kim; Kimberly Vater
2009: Cindy Kim	2010: Audy Mulia	2011: Amy Wang	2012 Andrew /Fu
2013: Wilbert Liu	2014: Mary Lou	2015: Michelle Cho	2016: Vivia Lung
2017: Erin Cho	2018: William Zhang	2019: Eric Sun	2020: Olivia Yu
2021: Claire Cho	2022: Rebecca Ma	2023: Lillian Walker