When the Suffolk County Music Educators Association holds its annual Jazz Day at Sayville High School on Saturday, January 19, there will be two Walt Whitman musicians anchoring the ensemble. Robert Deitz, a senior playing drum set, and Donovan Dukes, a junior trumpeter, have been named to the All-County Jazz Ensemble.
For Deitz, getting started on drums happened early. “I was in the third grade when I figured out that this was what I wanted to do,” he says. “In the seventh grade I joined the Stimson Jazz Cats, playing drum set. While I enjoy all styles of music, jazz was it for me.”
Dukes’s experience was similar. “I started playing trumpet in sixth grade while at Silas Wood, and once I joined the Jazz Cats at Stimson, my interest in jazz took off,” he says. “I would encourage students interested in music to develop their own uniqueness with their instrument,” he adds. For Dukes, a junior at Whitman, another year will give him time to focus on his music and studies, but for Deitz, a senior, his heart is set on continuing his music education after high school. He hopes to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. “One of my first music instructors once told me to remember the 3 Ps in music: patience, practice, and positivity,” says Deitz. “With those three, you can go anywhere.”