SACO  — The Alumni Band is pleased to announce that Katie Spagnolo, a graduating senior at Thornton Academy, is this year’s recipient of the Marcel ‘Mike’ Drapeau Alumni Band Scholarship, an award of $1,000.

This award was announced last week  at Thornton Academy’s Annual Jazz a la Mode Concert on their campus in Saco.

Spagnolo’s musical talents are both instrumental and vocal. She is an accomplished trombonist and singer, with a very broad vocal range. She has successfully auditioned for Districts and All State.

Her passion for music is expressed in many ways, in TA’s Jazz Band, as a member of the Old Orchard Beach Marching Band, as a chorus member, a performer in TA Player musicals and it doesn’t stop there. She also is active in local community theatre musicals.

A distinction of Katie’s is how early her passion to teach music manifested. In fifth grade, her music teacher Mr. Shabo gave her the opportunity to exercise musical leadership, enabling her to teach her fellow trombonists.

She picked up the opportunity to help select music for the group and on occasion ran full band rehearsals. The rest is history, her drive and passion are taking her on an exciting career that will give others the lifetime gift of learning and appreciating music.

Spagnolo will pursue undergraduate studies in Music Education at University of Maine at Orono this fall.