Senior hopes to sing her way to success

Like many high school seniors across the country, Catherine Sweeney is busy getting ready to send out college applications. First choice for the Baldwin High School senior is the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, because she’ll be able to study her two great loves: music and engineering.

That might seem like an odd pairing, but Sweeney takes the juxtaposition in stride. In fact, asked if she’s a music nerd or an engineering, she almost wails out a response. “I’m also a history nerd,” she said, explaining that she took an Advanced Placement European history course and loved the challenge, particularly because it relied heavily on analysis.

But it’s the music that got her recognized as a Scholar-Artist by the Long Island Arts Alliance. Sweeney, who said she started singing at the age of 5, is one of only 20 Long Island high school seniors to be so honored.

The award is important to her, she said. “It validates that everything I’m doing is right, that you’re doing well,” she said. “It means a lot, because only a few people are chosen for the music category.”

Now an accomplished vocalist who sings with many groups across the region, Sweeney hopes to continue her music studies at college, wherever she ends up. From the beginning, when she started singing with the St. Agnes Cathedral children’s choir in Rockville Centre, to the present, Sweeney keeps busy with her music. Besides her private voice lessons, she is the leader of a small a cappella ensemble, Octapella. She also performs with the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Chorus of New York, and earlier this year she placed second in the organization’s vocal competition. Through the organization, she has performed in places as close to home as Hofstra University and as far as Carnegie Hall.

But her work in engineering has become important to her, too, ever since she took a course in Advanced Placement physics. That challenge inspired her to join Baldwin’s robotics program, where she helped create a robotic forklift mechanism that would help in recycling.

And still, she finds time to just be a teenager. When she’s not vegging out on YouTube or on “House of Cards” on Netflix, Sweeney likes to go into Manhattan with friends to catch a Broadway show and eat. “We do a lot of eating,” she said, laughing.

But it’s the music that draws her back to herself. Currently, she is working on two pieces in preparation for her college auditions. One is Aaron Copland’s “Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven?” The other is the German “Lieder Mignon.” “It’s very sad, but beautiful,” she said. “One of those heart-wrenching pieces.”

“Music has been my constant passion,” Sweeney said. “I’d like to continue with academics and pursue music in college.”