There are many students that walk the halls at Oakmont with achievements, awards, and accomplishments that so many people don’t have a clue about. They are treated just like every other student, which is not a bad thing, however it is important to recognize the Spartans that are representing Oakmont in the greatest of ways.
Nolan Leclair is a Sophomore here at Oakmont who is an outstanding student. He is a part of the Concert Band, Jazz Band, Marching Band, Winter Percussion, and Concert Choir. Outside of Oakmont Ensembles, he is a member of the Worcester Youth Jazz Ensemble as well as the District and All State Bands.
Nolan’s music career began in third grade, where he played the Xylophone. He was inspired to begin because of
his older brothers Ryan and Declan who played instruments, Ryan playing Drums and Declan playing Trumpet.
Nolan continued with music not only because he loved playing but also because of the atmosphere. He really gets along with the other people in the ensembles he is in and enjoys making connections with them. Nolan did sports for a little while however it wasn’t the same to him as doing music ensembles. He feels more at home and in the right place when he is playing an instrument and surrounded by others playing instruments.
His favorite aspects of music are playing good jazz music, doing his own thing by really making his parts his own instead of playing exactly what is written on the page, and improvisation, which Nolan is especially great at.
When asked what his greatest accomplishment was so far in his music career, Nolan said it was making it into Districts and then Allstates in the same year. This was such a big deal for him as last year, he didn’t make it into Districts. In order to audition for Allstates, you must first it into Districts and get a recommendation to audition for Allstates. This means that Nolan auditioned so well for Districts that he made it in as well as got an Allstate recommendation, where he then made it in from his audition and performed with the Allstate Jazz Ensemble.
Nolan’s musical accomplishments this year don’t stop there, as he was also accepted into the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s Composers Forum where he played his very own composition to a room of about 20 other people invited to the Forum. He also received feedback about his composition from a panel of four professionals, on what worked well and what he could change with his composition for it to be even better.
Outside of music, Nolan also received a very special recognition recently: Spartan of the Month. Nolan was picked as the February Spartan of the Month due to his recent music accomplishments as well as his dedication to Oakmont’s music program.
A dream career for Nolan is of course something to do with music. He isn’t quite sure yet what it will be but he is interested in Music Education, Music Composition, and Sound Recording.
Nolan believes that he got to where he is now from the many auditions he has done, the people he has met and connected with, and from his piano teacher, Joe Mazzarella. He states that you learn a lot from other people and branching out is one of the best things you can do to improve as a musician.
