By Laura Lane
Oppido has been writing music for a long time. He wrote his first brass quintet while attending Woodland as a ninth-grader. As a student at East Meadow High School, Oppido wrote chamber music for the music department.
This year he orchestrated a composition called "Escape From The Woods" for the entire 96-piece concert band.
Joel Levy, chairperson of music at EMHS, is impressed by Oppido's compositions.
"Every once in a while, you run across a kid who is interested in writing like Vinny," Levy said. "He knows more pieces for concert band than a lot of teachers I know. He is very passionate about his music and very talented."
A self-taught pianist, Oppido began formal classical piano lessons at 12. As a teenager, he expanded upon his knowledge by studying jazz piano. His jazz piano teacher, Steve Marsh, who is also a music teacher at Jericho schools, thought he was different than most of the kids he taught.
"He was a very mature student, and the time that he put into working on music showed. When he studied jazz piano with me, he played a composition that he was working on for the wind ensemble at East Meadow High School," Marsh said. "The piece was well above the level of a high school student."
If you play the piano well, there might be a slot for you in the jazz band. It's a competitive position, since usually there is only one student chosen.
Oppido wanted very much to be more versatile and have more opportunities to perform. So he took mallet lessons to learn the xylophone, an instrument similar to piano.
He soon became proficient at it and continues to play the xylophone in East Meadow's band. Oppido also became expert at snare drum, so much so that he was chosen to be co-captain this past year for the high school's drum line. He will continue in that capacity next year as a senior.
Musician Steve Blutman was Oppido's private percussion teacher. He was so impressed by the teenager's talent, that Blutman asked him to accompany him to perform orchestra concerts. Oppido did not attend any rehearsals, but sight-read the music when he performed the concert.
"Vincent is one of the hardest workers I've met in a long time," Blutman said. "He writes good high school concert band music and has a really good idea how to orchestrate for a concert band."
The East Meadow teenager says he has always been indirectly influenced to write music by his father, Vincent, who also composes songs. The support and encouragement from his family has always meant a lot to him and led him to believe he could do what a teenager rarely does -- compose music.
Although Oppido receives acknowledgement at East Meadow High School for his fine musicianship and continued to write music, he had never written a composition for the entire band. The highpoint for Oppido this year was writing a piece for the East Meadow High School band. Even better, he was asked to be the conductor.
"At the conclusion of the piece, everyone went nuts in the audience," Oppido recalled. "I always think its cool when the composer comes in and works with the band. When you write music and put it into the computer, it sounds different than when you have live bodies playing it. Hearing my music was great."
East Meadow High School band director Stephen Engle was not surprised by Oppido's success.
"I've known Vincent since the sixth grade at Woodland, and he is a unique kind of kid," said Stephen Engle, high school band director. "This year I asked him to write the piece for the concert band and then asked him to conduct it too. It took him only three weeks to write it."
Engle said that Oppido commanded respect from his fellow students when he got onto the podium to conduct.
"He has covered rehearsals for me and even did that back in Woodland," Engle said. "He's very responsible and is just a great kid."
Levy, who said he sees Oppido as a great leader, asked him to also play with the Nassau-Suffolk Wind Symphony. This year, the group, which comprises select kids from all over Long Island, performed at the Tilles Center and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
Oppido has many plans for the future. He would like to publish "Escape From The Woods" and plans to eventually take composition lessons, believing this will enhance his own compositions a great deal. He also hopes to attend Berkley College of Music and would like to ultimately score music for films. Oppido is currently composing another piece, which he said is very different from his last.
"I love to do this and I just do it," Oppido said. "Some guys are great trumpet players, I compose. I do the same thing they do, just in a different category."
Oppido is modest. His teachers see him as one notch above the rest.
"I've never worked with someone as enthusiastic and self motivated as Vincent," Engle said. "I think it won't be long before we'll be ordering the latest publication of Vincent's music."
