For rising college freshman Luca Savarino, life is about finding the hardest thing to do and then doing it.
It’s playing his tenor saxophone with the high school band when he was only in sixth grade. It’s going to Messiah University’s jazz camp as a seventh grader who hated the unknowns of jazz but went anyway. It’s winning a YoungArts Award this past December for his efforts, yet already looking for the next big leap.
“That’s kind of always been my thing,” Savarino said. “If I’m scared of something, eventually, I just learn to love it.”
The YoungArts Award in question is an annual, national competition that receives thousands of applications each year, all from artists between 15 and 18 years old. The program, hosted by The National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists, offers winners mentorship, financial awards and professional development. Some previous winners include 2021 inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, actor Timothée Chalamet and actress Viola Davis.