User:Dayann Molina-McDonough/sandbox

Brianna Marie McDonough{User sandbox}}

Brianna Marie McDonough, date of birth 02/28/2001 is the eldest child of Brian McDonough and Dayann Molina McDonough. She was born in Queens in 2001 and is of Irish American, and AfriPuerto Rican descent. Brianna began her studies at Once Upon A Time performing arts school in Richmond Hill, NY, under Headmistress Theresa Cassesse Aubel of the Miami Ballet. She later attended public kindergarten and test results showed her to be gifted and talented. She was then placed in a special program for the gifted called the ASTRE Program, and began learning at P.S. 223Q in South Jamaica, Queens. Her music teacher from the age of 6 was Rev. Selena McFarlane-Bailey the school's musical director and an elder at the ___ church in Queens, NY. At the age of 13 she moved with her family to the Rockaways where she briefly attended the Waterside Children's Studio School and later The Scholar's Academy magnet junior high school for gifted and talented students. Brianna and her family are survivors of Superstorm Sandy. Shortly after that major natural disaster, Brianna began working with Benjamin Metzger of Benoir Studios in Long Beach, New York, Nassau County. She began singing publicly on The Halftime Howie Show, a local radio program on _____ AM that showcased the positive work being done to help others in the Nassau County area. Her first radio performance on Halftime Howie was part of a series of concerts called Long Live Long Beach, meant to assist with hurricane relief fundraising efforts in that area. Brianna continued to work with Benjamin Metzger and vocal coach Lisa Itts, of the band Solstar (a protegee of Peter Yarrow) on youth performing arts projects meant to assist the community, such as Arts on the Plaza, Halloween on the Plaza and charity events at the Hub Billiards Club in Island Park, NY, Nassau County. At the age of 12 she was a member of the --- piece band, Studio Noir Summer All Stars, peforming a set at the Hub Billiards Club along with other up and coming youth musicians and activists from the Nassau and Queens county area. At 13 she left the band to concentrate on theatrical vocal training with former opera singer Stephanie _____. Brianna attended the On Tour Company Musical Theatre Magnet program at her local high school and later was accepted into Long Island HIgh School of the Arts in Syosset, New York, a program meant to train young people in careers in the performing arts, which has Long Island native Billy Joel as its main benefactor. While attending both an academic program at her local high school in Merrick, New York, and attending The Rosalind Joel Conservatory for Music & Theatre Arts in Syosset (as the school was later named in honor of Mr. Joel, it's benefactor's, mother), Brianna trained under Jared Zirilli (lead male in Summer the Musical), Justin Stoney, Andy ____ (musical director of Urinetown), and Kelly ___ of the cast of the revival of Hair..... Brianna also continued to use music to bring awareness to issues of concern to young people and encourage social justice work. She was one of the first performers at the Long Island Pride's very first teen musician showcase in Long Beach, NY, promoting civil rights for LGBTQAI youth. She was a member of Sing For Hope, bringing music into hospitals to cheer up terminally ill youth. She returned to her after school program, The Child Center of NY at P.S. 223Q in South Jamaica, to work with her former music instructor to uplift inner city youth to be proponents of nonviolence and antibullying. She helped, after surviving Hurricane Maria and winning a national student journalism award for her article about that experience, to raise funds for Puerto Rican relief efforts by having her fellow students at the Rosalind Joel Conservatory perform a live cover of "Almost Like Praying", a song written and performed by Lin Manuel Rivera for Somos Unidos to bring humanitarian assistance to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and other areas seriously impacted by Hurricane Maria. Brianna officially registered the hashtag, Just Keep Singing, a common encouraging phrase in music circles, redefining it as a slogan to assist victims of bullying, in particular young peopel in performaing arts programs. As a result of these efforts, she was able to help launch the premiere of the antibullying movie, "" starring Tara Reid, at the Manhattan Film Festival 2017. She has continued to work with other performing artists and psychologist _____ (author of Teaching Bullies) to help stop bullying and teach conflict resolution to her peers. Brianna sees her antibullying work as peace work, and has received many awards and citations from public officials for her efforts to create a more civil society at a time in American history and politics where people have increasingly become more polarized in their viewpoints. Awards include the American Legion Good Deeds Award, the Community Presbyterian Church Peace Award, the Nassau County Students Building Bridges Award (which allowed her to be honored for making society more civil at an event meant to commemorate the Holocaust). Public officials ____________ name them __________ have specifically thanked her for her efforts on antibullying. She is the recipient at the ripe age of 17, of the YOuth -__ award from the New York State Assembly. Brianna was glad to be a participant in the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Summer Broadway Intensive program for high school students where she studied under ____ of "In The Heights" and Gary Q. Lewis of the original cast of "fame". In 2018 she worked alongside _____ of the Lauren +++ Jazz Project to compose a hot jazz crossover rendition of Demi Lovato (and the Jonas Brothers') "La La Land". As such she was a published composer of a published jazz cover of a popular song at the age of 17. Brianna is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Merrick Post 1282 and enjoys singing for our veterans and visiting with the women in the auxiliary to assist with community events and projects that honor the sacrifices of combat veterans. She has been honored to help with toy drives to assist the children of mass encarcerated parents along with the New York State Chaplaincy Task Force. At the age of 18 she produced her own youth showcase at Paradis Studios/Strong Island TV in Massapequa, NY in response to the fact that administrators would not allow rhythm and blues music sung by students of color to be publicly showcased at their graduation show. The show brought in over 350 local viewers on its live feed and featured some of Long Island's most talented youth in opera, blues, sound engineering, hip hop, broadway, rock and jazz styles of music. Prior to attending university, Brianna released a cover of the song "When I Cry" on social media, with the permission of songwriter and producer Don ____. "When I Cry", complete with sniffles, is meant to end the stigma attached to depression and other forms of mental illness and to encourage people to seek help for those treatable medical conditions.

Brianna is a member of the _____ sorority at the University of Rochester where she functions as the chapter's public relations representative. She attends the University under the coveted Prince Street Scholarship for excellence in two or more areas of the performing arts. She continues to work with her coaches as she pursues an academic degree in English with a concentration in Drama, and takes hybrid classes at the Eastman School of Music. Brianna continues to be a staunch antiracist, feminist, youth LGBT activist, and supporter of human rights. She has been embraced not only by professionals in the New York Broadway tradition but also by activists, authors, musicians, and actors in the Lower East Side and Greenwhich Village postpunk and avant guard scene. She is proudly seen in photos at the Shows at Tompkins Square Park with long time activists and musicians in the punk scene including members of The Undead, The Misfits, The CroMags and Murphy's Law. She also has been featured in the "What Kind of Person Reads The Shadow?" photo op series, kept by Chris Flash, one of the major independent anarchist journalists and punk rock chroniclers in the New York art, music and political subculture. Other artists who were featured in the "What Kind of Person Reads The Shadow?"series include Susan Sarandon, Madonna, The Ramones, and Dick Gregory, all of whom Brianna believes keep her in good company. Brianna also sometimes works as a street vendor at the "Girl Power" event sponsored annually by the Hester Street Fair, one of the oldest public markets in New York City. That particular event is meant to celebrate young women entreprenuers. At the 2016 Hester Street Fair, Brianna assisted a friend of hers in raising funds to go to Thailand to assist endangered elephants and gain veterinary training, which her friend then did use to go on to study veterinary medicine in New Zealand.

Brianna continues her dedication to social justice work and using music as a tool for awareness building and consciousness raising by working to bridge the cultural divide between first generation immigrants, in particular those of Asian descent, and the Black Community, on the issue of police misconduct and brutality. She continues to be a vocal supporter of LGBTQAI rights, including her work as an ally to transgendered persons. She also has consistently championed for inclusion and assistance to disabled youth in our schools in communities, and has been a very strong advocate for her siblings who have high functioning autism and has spoken on behalf of special ed students who have been the targets of bullying or hate speech in her community.

Brianna's cover songs are accessible on her website, on Rhythm Nation, and on her You Tube Channel. She has not published new compositions or new videos in some time due to the fact that the Novel Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 closed Broadway, performance venues, and barred her from being able to continue other music and activist projects that use music as a tool for social justice. She is currently working on a reunion concert with her fellow Rosalind Joel Conservatory Alumni and on recording her original songs for online dissemination on the Pandora social media and music platform. She hopes also to work with heavy metal band Blue Helix to cover their antibullying anthem, Antisocial Butterfly, in the near future, in order to continue to remind people of the importance of antibullying and peaceful coexistence with those who may be different from us or have different political viewpoints.