Whiz Kid Of The Week: Ryley Alger-Hempstead

Whiz Kid’s Name:  Ryley Alger-Hempstead, age 16

Whiz Kid’s School:  Fitch High School, Grade 12

Whiz Kid’s Accomplishments:  Ryley sings the national anthem from the announcer’s booth at the Mystic Schooners home baseball games at Fitch High School.

“I think it was like the second or third grade, at my elementary school (in New London) we would have town assemblies where we would get the entire (school) in the gym and go over important things and make announcements, and I sang the national anthem at a couple of those,” Ryley said.

“I remember not feeling nervous.”

Ryley sings in the Fitch High School Chamber Choir, the Fitch High School Men’s Choir, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus and the Connecticut Lyric Opera Chorus. He’s been in four operas in the last two years. Every year, he also sings in the Eastern Regional Honors Choir, and last year sang in the All-State Choir. Ryley also goes caroling every December with others from the music department.

He plays piano and reads music, though he never had formal piano lessons. He learned the basics when he took music theory as a ninth grader at Fitch, then went home and practiced.

“I can play a lot of songs people recognize,” he said. “I can play a lot of Billy Joel songs.”  His favorite Billy Joel song to play is “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”.

In addition to music, Ryley is a member of the Philosophy Club, Math Team, Science Team, Fencing Team and National Honor Society at Fitch.

He’s enrolled in eight classes his senior year: advanced placement European history, advanced placement music theory, advanced placement calculus, advanced placement physics, advanced placement English, Latin through the University of Connecticut, chamber choir and an applied arts course.

He’s looking at several colleges, including the University of Connecticut, Connecticut College, the University of Maine and the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford. He plans to double major in music education and music performance, with a minor in Latin.

He wants to teach high school music when he’s done, and sing.

Key to his success:  “That’s a hard question, because I just do what I do,” he said. “I think the key to my success is that I like school, and I’m interested in the classes I’m taking.”

Best Advice:  “I suppose my advice would be if you know that you want to do something specific with your life, don’t let anyone stop you. No matter what they say. Because it’s ultimately up to you anyway,” he said.