Stuyvesant Student Musicians Perform at YutsFest

YutsFest is an annual musical showcase first organized by Stuyvesant students in 2023. This year’s event, held at Hill Country Barbecue on June 22, featured live singing and band performances from more than 17 acts made up of Stuyvesant students and music groups from other NYC schools. The showcase was led by the YutsFest student board, who spent months organizing logistics leading up to the event. “My favorite part of being on the board is working with so many talented individuals who are passionate about the arts—from our wonderful graphic designers and artists to our musicians. None of this would be possible without them,” said senior and Executive Producer Hilda Liang in an email interview. 

YutsFest was founded as StuyFest in June 2023 by Stuyvesant students Gaven Nowak (‘24), August Petry (‘24), Matthew Monge (‘24), Zoey Marcus (‘25), Esayah Edghils (‘25), and current senior Hilda Liang. StuyFest changed its name toYutsFest just after its second annual show in 2024, following an executive decision by the YutsFest board. It has since grown into an annual music showcase where students of all NYC public high schools can connect and display their musical skills; this year’s YutsFest featured its first Brooklyn Tech participants. “It’s been great seeing the show grow each year, with this year not only having the most participants but also performers from other schools,” said Yutsfest performer Tahlia Jamir (‘26). “Yutsfest has the potential to be a uniting force among various NYC high schools.”

Such connections were also a highlight for junior Sonam Kananujia, who performed “Die With a Smile” by Bruno Mars. “I loved the community YutsFest brought to me, and it gave me another chance to meet and say hi to a bunch of people. Yutsfest was a blast overall and it was just great to get the opportunity to perform alongside such talented and passionate people,” Kananujia said. 

To prepare for the event, many performers made schedules to rehearse within their groups at the end of the school year and during the summer. Sophomore and Yutsfest performer Campbell Lindberg performed several songs: “When The Chips Are Down” from Hadestown, “Sail On, Boys” from Operation Mincemeat, and an acapella arrangement of “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. “My friends in my first act and I stayed after school in the music room to learn songs and choreography, as well as some rehearsals in the park. For my second act, the rest of the acapella group and I met in the park by Stuy pretty much every day during regents week to officially learn the music for our songs, and a few times I worked one-on-one with one of our directors to learn my part,” Lindberg said. 

Part of what makes Yutsfest a bonding experience is its atmosphere. “It is a relatively low-stakes environment, which can be reassuring for many new performers,” Liang said.

Such an environment is possible because, unlike showcases run within Stuyvesant, YutsFest consists purely of musical performances and takes place during the summer—not the academic year—making it a much less stressful experience to plan for. “Many of the music showcases that do take place at Stuy either have repertoire that is selected by our teachers, or aren’t primarily musically focused with maybe one or two acts for musicians. For some people, the music programs that occur during the school year conflict with other courses or extracurriculars that they take,” said Liang. 

This year’s YutsFest wasn’t without several obstacles in planning and execution. Because several sets ran overtime, some acts were cut from the showcase. For example, Lindberg wasn’t able to perform “My Girl” by The Temptations and “For The Longest Time” by Billy Joel as she originally planned to. “One thought I had was that when the performers had to fill out a form about how long their act was, some of them tremendously understated it, which meant bits of other acts had to get cut off, so I wish they had officially timed us during a rehearsal before or something,” Lindebrg said. 

However, the board and performers worked together to overcome this obstacle and made sure the event kept running smoothly. “We were ultimately able to ensure that every group had the chance to perform after a series of quick negotiations between our performers. This was definitely stressful at times on my end, but I’m proud that our board and performers were able to really step up to make this event successful,” Liang said. 

Since last year, YutsFest has grown and attracted more people. “I was very excited to see more performers from outside of Stuy also perform at this event! We had a pretty diverse range of musical genres displayed this year, which was great to see. Not only that, but our audience also expanded; some guests came down to hear the music who didn’t know about the event previously, even some people from out of state,” Liang said. 

The range of genres has left performers hoping more students will sign up next year. “I love how diverse the range of performances were, so I would love to see more people just take their opportunity… I think it’s such a casual and nice environment that everyone should shoot their shot,” Kananujia said.

 Despite its substantial success, the students involved in YutsFest still have many goals for its continued growth. “Next year, we’re looking into expanding this event in terms of our venue and inclusion of individuals from other schools. I have also seen a lot of expressed interest for longer set times and more seating accommodations due to the sheer volume and enthusiasm of our audience,” said Liang. 

For the graduating Stuyvesant seniors, the June show was their last at Yutsfest. “Performing at Yutsfest as a senior was definitely bittersweet!” said Jamir, who has participated in three Yutsfests in her time at Stuyvesant. “It was really beautiful to see my fellow graduation seniors pour their hearts out, and leave their mark on Stuyvesant’s music community. It was equally as precious to see the underclassmen perform, some of whom I’ve not seen perform outside of a group setting. Seeing these people come out of their shells and show us all just how talented they are assured me that the music scene at Stuy is in good hands. I look forward to seeing all the amazing things these people will do!”