Four students in diocesan schools have been awarded Gertrude C. Kuehefuhs music scholarships.
Outstanding instrumental and choral music students receive the $250 awards to help them pay Catholic high school or college tuition. Two scholarships are awarded to high school seniors and two to eighth-graders.
Kuehefuhs was a longtime member of the Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral choir and a music instructor at Ohio State University. The awards are made possible from a gift received from her estate.
High School Instrumental Music
Julien Brandon
Julien Brandon is a percussionist with the marching, jazz, concert, honor and worship bands at Columbus Bishop Watterson High School and is band president. He was one of eight percussionists chosen from among 1,200 musicians who auditioned for this year’s Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) conference. He has received OMEA superior ratings for snare drum every year since ninth grade.
From 2021 to 2023, he was part of the Cap City percussion ensemble that took part in the Winter Guard International competition. He also is drummer for the Columbus-based Social Reaction pop band and in the past played for the Lonely Fossa band. He is a drum, keyboard and bass guitar instructor at the School of Rock in Dublin and plays in its house band.
At school, he has been an altar server, attended the diocesan Guadalupe youth summit and was a volunteer for the Columbus St. Andew Church festival. He plans to attend Ohio State University, majoring in jazz composition in hopes of composing music and scores for media.
High School Choral Music
Hailey Lepi
Hailey Lepi of Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans High School goes to Zanesville St. Nicholas Church and plans to attend Indiana University in the fall, majoring in merchandising and minoring in fashion design and marketing.
She has been an alto in the school choir since ninth grade and has been very active with the school’s theater program, writing and teaching choreography for the school’s production of “Grease” and the Bishop Fenwick Middle School presentation of “Frozen Kids.”
She also has been a part of the school’s traveling performing arts group and a varsity cheerleader and Mass lector and been a school ambassador, vice president of the Muskingum County Community Youth Foundation and a member of the National Honor Society, Drama Club, Key Club, Pep Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the basketball and softball teams.
Elementary Instrumental Music
Henry Osuji
Henry Osuji, an eighth-grade graduate of Columbus St. Cecilia School, plans to attend Columbus Bishop Ready High School in the fall. He began playing in the Ready marching band as an eighth-grader, receiving the band’s esprit de corps award, and represented both schools as part of a concert at Cristo Rey Columbus High School.
Besides being a talented trumpeter, he was a member of the diocesan honor choir and has performed in major parts in school musicals and been a Mass cantor. He is interested in creating digital music and plans to study development of software and computer rhythms in college.
Elementary Choral Music
Leah Ghefe
Leah Ghefe will be a student at Columbus Bishop Hartley High School after attending Columbus Holy Spirit School. In seventh grade, she had a solo in the school musical “Godspell Jr.” and this past school year had the lead female role of Jasmine in “Aladdin Jr.”
She has been a cantor and lector at school Masses and been a member of the diocesan honor choir, the school choir, the Beta Club, Power of the Pen and the basketball team.
She plans to continue studying music in college.