Andrew Renaud’s actions were more than just words. “Music will always be a part of my life,” Renaud said in his application for a music scholarship from the Kaua‘i Mokihana Club. That commitment from the Kaua‘i High School senior who
Andrew Renaud’s actions were more than just words.
“Music will always be a part of my life,” Renaud said in his application for a music scholarship from the Kaua‘i Mokihana Club.
That commitment from the Kaua‘i High School senior who performed before the Mokihana Club at its 2008 Music Scholarship Audition had a lot of weight when he took the stage, Wednesday morning, at the Lihu‘e Parish Hall.
During the 2007 Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation football season, Renaud was the signal caller for the Red Raiders who went on to earn the KIF championship in that sport.
Beyond hiking the ball, Renaud took time out of the team’s half-time locker room discussions to take up the drum major position for the band during its homecoming performance.
Renaud’s achievements in the musical field include being recognized as an Outstanding Band Student during his freshman and sophomore years at Kaua‘i High School. He was a member of the Hawai‘i Youth Symphony during his seventh and eighth grades while part of the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School band under the direction of David Yukimura.
Active in his Boy Scout troop and in his church, Renaud also sported the uniform of the All-Kaua‘i Marching Band which participated in the Rose Bowl in Pasedena, Calif.
Currently the band president of the Kaua‘i High School band under the direction of music director Darryl Miyasato, Renaud is also the drum major for the Red Raider Marching Band. He is also a member of the Kaua‘i High School student government.
“I didn’t think there were going to be this much people,” Renaud said to Maggi Celebrado, the 2007 Miss Kaua‘i Filipina, as he prepared his euphonium for performance.
The euphonium is a brass instrument similar to the baritone tuba, but smaller in size, and the sound it produced under Renaud’s mastery blended well with the soft air at the Lihu‘e Parish Hall as the student performed “Sonate a-Moll” by Vivaldi.
Renaud, who also plays for the Kaua‘i High School baseball team and participates in the school’s track program, plans on attending Arizona Western College where he plans on including music in his studies.
Celebrado augmented Renaud’s performance by taking the stage for piano pieces with her instructor Joyce Anglemyer, also a Mokihana Club member, joining her for a duet.
Celebrado, who has been playing the piano since 2000, has received Superior ratings in the National Guild of Piano Teachers Guild Auditions for seven straight years. She also was a participant in the Pianomania held in Honolulu in 2006 where there were 12 grand pianos on stage at the Blaisdell Auditorium.
The purpose of the Mokihana Music Scholarship is help students continue their musical and performing arts studies beyond high school, said Carolyn Knepper, the Mokihana Club’s first vice president and chair of the 2008 Music Scholarship Audition.
“Andrew is an outstanding student and came highly recommended by all his teachers,” Knepper said. “Music is something in his life that helps widen his smile.”
