Musicians in our school? Of course! Just step inside the band or chorus rooms whenever you like, and you’ll find plenty of musical talent. But some take it a step further. WHBHS senior John Tocco, for one, has been playing with various bands at venues all around Long Island since 2011. Another senior, Lucas Mercep, makes electronic music right from his own home. Similarly, albeit in a completely different genre, senior Sarah Blumenthal plays the piano in local Long Island concerts, and plans to pursue her musical passion through college and beyond.

Since forming the rock-oriented band Poison Was The Cure in 2011, Tocco has covered the roles of singer, guitar player, and drummer in a myriad of bands. You might have heard him playing at the 2012 and 2013 editions of the Westhampton Beach Battle of the Bands under the banner of Poison Was The Cure, Just A Few, and The Mistakes. Tocco played at Riverhead’s Vail-Leavitt Music Hall with Poison Was The Cure and his shorter-lived band, Blackroot, in 2013. East Islip Lanes, a live-music bowling alley, has hosted him with Just A Few, Blackroot, and one of his newer bands, Vintage Penguin. Tocco currently plays in Vintage Penguin and The Entertainment, with which he has played in Sayville’s Soul Sounds record store, the Southampton Battle of the Bands, East Islip Lanes, and Amityville Music Hall. He has played at many more venues, but he jokes, “I definitely can’t list them all.”

Tocco’s greatest local musical inspiration while in his budding stages came from Jetty Four, he says: “They had an insanely tight sound that I dream to emulate to this day.” His other musical experience, however, comes from the school itself: as much as he enjoys the freedom, friendly venues, and relaxed jamming associated with playing in a band, Tocco says that in the school ensembles, “there’s a conductor and you’re a contributor to a larger product and sound.” “At the end of the day, though,” he explains, “it’s just a matter of what kind of style you want to perform.”

Since 2011, Lucas Mercep has been making music right from his laptop computer. When asked what genre he would label his songs as, he said “Bass of all kinds, dubstep, drum and bass, glitch hop, really whatever I feel like.” Using a music-software program called Ableton Live, Mercep is able to write electronic music whenever he has free time. He puts his songs on bandcamp.com, an online music-sharing interface, and is currently trying to get signed to a SoundCloud.com label. “I considered making this a career back in 2012,” he says, “but I think it’s best as a hobby.” That way, instead of having to take courses in audio production, he says he can keep it down to “watching tutorials now and then, but ultimately focusing on self-teaching.”

When Sarah Blumenthal took her first official piano lesson at age 6, she had already been playing the instrument for three years. Since then, she has participated in countless competitions, recitals for the East End Arts Council, and school productions (as piano accompaniment for the choir). “My favorite pieces to play,” says Blumenthal, “would definitely be from either the classical and romantic periods.” Her repertoire includes works from all the masters of the time: currently she is learning Mozart’s Sonata in C Minor and Brahms’s Intermezzo in A Major. Although still undecided about her choice of university, Blumenthal says that she’ll definitely pursue Musical Education, entailing “music education courses, performance courses, composition courses, and just being involved in as many ensembles as possible!”

In the end, it comes down to the freedom offered by music outside of school.

“We can play what we want, where we want, and how we want. The only thing dictating any of these things is our mindset,” explains Tocco. The musicians can take their passions any way they want, either making careers out of them or keeping them as hobbies.