Quincy teen plans to follow his music dreams to CWU

Juan Ferreyra talks about music the way some people talk about home — something lived in, something steadying.

At 17, the Quincy High School senior is fluent in melody and measure, carrying trumpet valves and choral harmonies with the devotion that makes adolescence feel both fleeting and immense.

“I realized music is the thing that makes me feel like who Juan is,” he said in a recent article in the Quincy Valley Post-Register. “Why not just follow it?”

Ferreyra plans to study music education at Central Washington University, hoping someday to guide young musicians the way his own directors guided him.

That ambition sharpened during his freshman year, when he attended a CWU concert and heard "Wine Dark Sea," a thunderous wind ensemble work that transfixed him.

“I couldn’t look away,” he said.

At QHS, Ferreyra plays trumpet in band, sings tenor in choir, and has become a regular in school theater.

He joined the stage late — first in "Little Women," then as Jean-Michel in "Cinderella," a comedic revolutionary delivering both punchlines and pointedness. This year, cross-country kept him from performing in the fall play "Puffs," so he recorded voices for the Sorting Hat, a Quidditch announcer and a DJ — a compromise that let him honor both the sport and the stage.

“High school’s only four years,” he said. “I want to take advantage of the time I have.”

That mindset fuels his schedule: rehearsals, meets, concerts, classes and the community choir, where he sings alongside adults decades older. The intergenerational space feels grounding.

“Hearing their stories about Quincy, even before it was really a town, was amazing,” he said. Home is quieter — his parents, a guinea pig named Camila, a dog named Bukis, and his brother’s old trumpet, now his own.

He’s drawn to English class nearly as much as music; his favorite book is "Dracula" for its shifting perspectives and explorations of culture and fear. As graduation nears, his hope for Quincy is simple: show up.

“It helps school spirit when the community is there with us,” Ferreyra said.

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This article appears on the Quincy Valley Post-Register's website.