Saturday, May 17, was a very special day for the Cushman family of Little Neck. Both Rebecca Stein Cushman, 10, of PS 94 and Jeremy Stein Cushman, 12, of MS 67 were selected as the respective winners of the elementary and middle school divisions of the Qu
As such, they will be representing the borough at the citywide finals to be held in Manhattan’s Heckscher Theater on June 6. The winner of the high school division was singer, Janice Quinonez of Woodhaven.
After five days of auditions run by the City Department of Parks and Recreation, six children had been selected to perform in each of the divisions competing at the Queens finals. Those chosen included singers, dancers and instrumentalists. When it was Rebecca Cushman’s turn, she impressed the judges with her classical cello performance, which included a lilting rendition of “Humoresque” followed by an exciting “Scherzo.”
Later that same evening, Jeremy Cushman and his violin had the crowd clapping along to a hoe-down, swooning to the romantic “El Choclo” and gasping at a breathtakingly fast performance of “Flight of the Bumble Bee.”
And at the end of the show, it was a Queens first: a brother and sister winning on the same evening. Rebecca thanked her parents and cello teacher, Claire Liu, and Jeremy thanked his parents and violin teacher, Yukako Tarumi, for all their support. Then they went off with their matching medals to celebrate their shared success.
