Supporting the Next Generation of Musicians

GBFOM Scholarship Program a resounding success!

In 2026, GBFOM awarded three $1,000 scholarships to high school graduates who will pursue music at the collegiate level. The Scholarship Committee was chaired by Patricia Hills and included Priscilla Wiedl, Peter Angelakos, and Allyn Foster. Read about the program here.

PHOTO: Left to right: Patricia Hills, winner Charlotte Zgliczynski, and Priscilla Wiedl.

Celebrating the 2026 GBFOM three $1,000 Scholarship recipients—and catching up with our 2025 winner Austin Vitello!

Eva Sanchez of West Seneca, an Orchard Park High School graduate, will study music composition at SUNY Fredonia.

Olivia Zientek of Hamburg, a violinist, will continue her music studies at Berklee in Boston.

Charlotte Zgliczynski of Lancaster will pursue bassoon performance at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Our 2025 inaugural recipient, Austin Vitello, shares below how the $1,000 Scholarship has impacted his life this past year.

"I have had a very rewarding musical year. Last summer, I was selected to perform with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA). Members of this highly prestigious ensemble are chosen through a rigorous national audition process. Each selected member receives a full scholarship that covers all participation fees, travel expenses, meals and housing, generously provided by Carnegie Hall. The orchestra, conducted by Maestro Gianandrea Noseda and featuring soloist Ray Chen, performed at Carnegie Hall and then toured major concert halls across the Pacific Rim, including Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Seoul. Needless to say, it was an incredible six weeks.

In September, I began my first year at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Texas. I love it there. I am fortunate to study with my internationally recognized bassoon teacher, Professor Benjamin Kamins, and I have already learned so much under his guidance. In addition to my weekly lessons and studio classes, I participated in masterclasses and performed in chamber music and symphony orchestra concerts, as well as the freshman recital. Because the Shepherd School’s enrollment is intentionally kept small and selective, every student, regardless of age, receives ample performance opportunities. At the conclusion of my first two semesters, I was very proud to have earned an overall university GPA of 3.85.

Currently, during summer 2026, I am enjoying a fellowship at the Kent Blossom Music Festival in Ohio. I have had a wonderful time making music with my peers, and I am looking forward to the program’s final concert, which will feature a side-by-side performance with The Cleveland Orchestra.

For the future, I am eagerly looking forward to my second year at Rice, and I hope to start auditioning professionally this fall."

Austin Vitello

2025 GBFOM Scholarship Winner

For more information about the annual Greater Buffalo Friends of Music High School Scholarship Program, visit our Young Musicians page.

Science Reveals the Surprising Health Benefits of Singing

If you love to sing, you’re in luck!

Research shows that using your voice comes with a surprising range of health benefits. From improving lung function to helping you relax, there are plenty of good reasons to belt out your favorite tunes—even if you’re slightly off-key.

Singing stimulates the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain through the throat and vocal cords to organs throughout the body. As part of the parasympathetic nervous system, it helps regulate breathing, heart rate, and digestion. Research suggests that stronger vagal tone is linked to better physical and mental health, as well as a faster return to calm after stress.

Reducing stress through singing is even linked to strengthening the immune system by increasing beneficial antibodies. And singing has also been found to help reduce pain and improve people’s heart rate and blood pressure. One study even suggests that singing can give the heart and lungs a workout similar to a brisk walk on a treadmill.

One of the most striking benefits of singing is its potential to support brain recovery after injury. This was seen in the case of Gabrielle Giffords, who used familiar songs from childhood as part of speech therapy after surviving a gunshot wound to the head in 2011. Singing helped her gradually regain verbal fluency over time.

Similar techniques are now used with stroke survivors, as singing provides the repetition needed to rebuild connections between the brain’s hemispheres. It is also thought to support neuroplasticity, helping the brain rewire itself and form new neural pathways. Research shows that singing can even help people with Parkinson’s improve speech clarity.

One recent study showed that singing also helped people with long Covid. After six weeks of working with professional singers in the English National Opera, participants reported fewer breathing difficulties and better overall well-being.

“For some people, living with breathlessness can result in them changing the way they breathe, so that it becomes irregular and inefficient,” says Keir Philip, a clinical lecturer in respiratory medicine at Imperial College London. “Some singing-based approaches help this in terms of the muscles used, the rhythm, and the depth [of breathing], which can help improve symptoms.”

While the physical benefits of singing are fascinating in their own right, the social side of singing has also been shown to play a powerful role in our health. Singing in groups, in particular, is linked to higher levels of psychological well-being than singing alone. Researchers studying community choirs for cancer survivors, stroke survivors, people living with Parkinson’s disease, and people living with dementia, and their caregivers, have found that group singing can reduce feelings of isolation, improve mood, and even strengthen immune systems.

So, don’t worry if you don’t have perfect pitch. Turn up the music and sing. Your body might thank you for it.

Source: Emma Taggart Why singing is surprisingly good for your health

Your Brain on Music: How Tunes Can Impact Your Mind

Music can impact your physical and mental health.

Learn how music can impact your physical and mental health, memory, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. 

When you hear a song you love, it can scratch just the right kind of itch in the back of your brain. Whether it’s the Jurassic Park theme song from John Williams or the latest and greatest from Taylor Swift, the music we listen to has the power to pump up our creativity and jumpstart the cells in our brains.

In this article, Endovascular neurosurgeon Farah Fourcand, MD, explains how music impacts the brain and how it can actually help heal it as well.

“Music is a very primal thing,” says Dr. Fourcand. “By arousing or activating various parts of your brain, music can impact your physical and mental health, memory, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. It can help improve your mood, reduce stress, and enhance your memory.”

Music impacts nearly every part of your brain, including:

·  Your limbic system, which contains your hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus. When activated, this area of your brain helps regulate your emotional response to music.

·  Your cerebral cortex (or gray matter) houses your motor cortex, which, when activated, triggers your body to dance and move to the rhythm of music.

Cognitive Functions

Music activates parts of your brain that help:

·  Preserve and improve memory

·  Enhance creativity

·  Improve attention, focus, and concentration

·  Decrease reaction time

·  Improve spatial reasoning (the ability to visualize or imagine 2D and 3D objects mentally)

·   Promote brain development in children and adults

“Your hippocampus holds all of your memories, and your limbic system is responsible for emotion, pleasure, and reward,” explains Dr. Fourcand. “When these areas are activated, it gives you a sense of nostalgia.”

For example, if there’s a song that resonated with you as a teenager, and you hear it again 20 or 30 years later, your hippocampus and limbic system create a nostalgic memory. That’s why you experience that same rush of emotions you once had when you heard the song for the first time or during an important moment from your past.

Researchers have also discovered that rapid modulation — or quick changes in key and tone — within a single piece of music can help you stay focused and complete tasks more efficiently. That’s because music activates your frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex, which are responsible for judgment and self-control. So, background noise can be helpful for anyone who’s unmotivated or distracted, especially those living with ADHD.

“People with ADHD sometimes need external stimuli to be able to focus, and music can help them strike a balance by giving them just enough arousal,” further explains Dr. Fourcand.

“The potential downside is that something that’s overstimulating can just as easily negatively trigger them and cause their mind to wander, so people with ADHD will have to play with it and test out different kinds of music to see what works best to help them focus.”

Physical Benefits

Music also has many physical benefits. It can:

·  Decrease cortisol levels

·  Lower heart rate and blood pressure

·  Motivate your body to move

·  Create new neural connections and increase neuroplasticity 

The triggering of your motor cortex and muscle memory is what causes you to subconsciously tap your foot or move to the beat of the music. In fact, music is so effective in motivating your body to move that it can positively impact people who’ve had traumatic brain injuries.

“Sometimes, music and song activate so many parts of your brain that you can see a person with Alzheimer’s disease recite a song and remember the song perfectly,” she continues. “You can see someone with aphasia express themselves. It’s really beautiful.”

Emotional and Psychological Effects

Our emotional responses to music are triggered by the amygdala, which plays a crucial role in emotional regulation and the formation of emotional memories.

We all feel and express our emotions in different ways, so it’s no wonder some of us love to listen to sad songs and still find the same satisfaction as those who prefer listening to more upbeat music. It’s ultimately not about the content of the song itself, but the kind of hedonic motives (or arousal) music evokes in us.

“Everybody has their own collection of experiences and things they’re comfortable feeling and places they’re comfortable going,” illustrates Dr. Fourcand. “Some people thrive in chaos, and some people need a lot of positivity. Whatever you vibe with your mind will make these associations in your amygdala and your limbic system.”

As a result, music can:

·  Trigger emotional responses

·  Reduce stress and anxiety

·  Facilitate emotional processing

·  Help communicate difficult emotions

·  Regulate mood

SOURCE: Board Member Anita Chadwick / CommunityONE Newsletter, September 24, 2025