“I hustled my way into BC bOp! When Seb [Sebastian Bonaiuto, Boston College Bands Director] told me they didn’t use horns I was so annoyed, but I said ‘Wait, don’t you need two trumpets?’ I didn’t play the trumpet but I naively thought ‘How hard can it be? I’ll learn.’ And I did. For four years, I played fourth trumpet in bOp! and the whole time I thought I was unraveling my chances at becoming a French horn player, but I learned to swing. Years later, I was the only horn player who could hang with a rhythm section, who played in time during dance sequences in big Broadway numbers, who could wail when you were supposed to wail. The thing I feared would hold me back, was, in fact, the making of me.” - Shelagh Abate ’97, an internationally renowned horn player and winner of Boston College Arts Council's 2024 Alumni Artist Award | READ MORE: https://on.bc.edu/ArtsFest2024