- My name is Teresa Rodrigues.

I go to Shenendehowa High School and I play the alto saxophone.

(soft piano music) (soft saxophone music) I played, "I Didn't Know About You" by Duke Ellington.

It's a ballad, which most people might think is just like a slow, kind of like melancholy thing, but I think that it can really be more lively and I believe it's about just like falling in love.

(saxophone music continues) My favorite thing about this piece is the memories that I have playing it.

I played this piece with my friends at the Skidmore Jazz Institute over the summer at Cafe Lena and it was a really great experience and I just- reminds me of my friends and that's why I like playing it.

I originally played this tune with a quartet and moving from that to a piano saxophone duo is a little bit more difficult, I would say, because you have to really be listening 'cause there's no drums to keep time or bass, so you have to rely on each other for all that time and harmonic information.

(saxophone music continues) I play saxophone.

I picked it in the fifth grade because I thought it looked cool, but I think it was really lucky that I picked saxophone because not all the other like classical band or like orchestral instruments have this history of jazz.

And so I think if I had picked something else, I wouldn't be able to really, I probably wouldn't be playing jazz like I am now.

What I like about jazz is how free it is.

And I even remember when I was first learning improvisation, one of my teachers, he would say, just play how you feel, like play what you ate for breakfast this morning, like emulate what you're feeling through your music.

And I feel like it's more expressive than maybe like other types of music.

I like classical too, but you're playing someone else's notes and there's definitely a lot of expression that you can do through that.

But in jazz, like it's all up to you.

Like everything is up to you.

(saxophone music continues) I plan on doing a double major or a minor in music.

Just important to me to continue playing music.

It's kind of an outlet for me creatively and I really enjoy it, so why stop?

Etienne Abelin from ESYO nominated me for this and I'm really grateful to have this opportunity.

I would like to thank Brian Patneaude, my private saxophone teacher, Mr. Wayne Hawkins who played with me on piano.

Brian Carucci, who's my band director at Shen Keith Prey, who's probably the reason that I'm playing jazz today.

And my friends and family.