Community Corner
Whiz Kid Morgan Reilly: Being 1 in 40 is Quite an Honor
She's off to NYU to become a music entrepreneur.
- Name: Morgan Reilly, 18
- School: Parkland High School, 12th grade
- Greatest Accomplishment: Getting into New York University’s (NYU) Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. Part of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, the department, known as ReMu, trains undergraduates in the production, business and history of popular music with a focus on music entrepreneurship in pop, rock, hip hop and rhythm and blues, and it is the only department in any university to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Recorded Music. Described as the “premier training ground for training future music moguls,” the department was established in 2003 on a $5 million donation from music executive and NYU alumnus Clive Davis. “I’m so excited,” says Morgan, “because I’m one of 40 [applicants] selected from around the world. I want to major in professional entrepreneurship or become a recording artist.” And she’s well on her way to that goal, having performed in too many musical productions to mention, including her most recent role as Christine Colgate in Parkland’s spring production of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” Morgan has been a seven-time Freddy Award nominee (this year’s nominations will be announced at noon Thursday on WMFZ-TV, Channel 69), and in 2009, won the Freddy for Outstanding Featured Performance by an Actress for her role in “Godspell.” Her favorite role, she says, was as the lead in “Aida” (2010) because she “felt honored to play the part of a character she admired since fifth grade.” She adds she enjoyed performing in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” last month. “It’s the first comedy [Parkland] has done in awhile, and I got to have fun and not worry about dying.” Aside from her theatrical performances, Morgan has garnered recognition for her vocal talent by being a three-time participant in the Pennsylvania Music Educators’ Association All-State Chorus, and earlier this spring was selected for the 52nd Annual Music Educators National Conference All-Honors Ensembles in Baltimore, Md., an experience she describes as “a really good opportunity to perform with the best of the best from the East Coast.” In addition, she is vice president of Parkland’s Performing Arts Club and is a member of the International Thespian Society and the National Honor Society.
- Key to Awesomeness: Her drive, determination and ability to recognize her talent. Asked what she thinks makes her awesome, she replies, “I really don’t know, but I think I was fortunate to figure out at a young age what I want to do with my life.” Everything she’s gravitated to seems to have some root in music and theater, from dancing for the past 14 years (she takes ballet and modern classes at the Muhlenberg College Community Dance Center), to songwriting and playing the piano and ---of all things--- the ukulele. “I listened to a lot of artists who play the ukulele, and I have three friends who I got interested in playing it, too,” she says. “We might be one of the traveling bands during the Festival of the Arts (Parkland’s annual school/community art event May 19-21 on the high school campus)," but, she adds, it may even go beyond that: they have joked about entering the fest’s “Battle of the Bands” competition.
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