Rebecca Neumann
Staff Writer

Though he hummed the first 8 notes of the Barney song before he could even talk, senior Aaron Endelman is attending New York University’s Tisch program in the fall and is going to study film writing.

Music is as much a passion for him as script writing. He can play the French horn, the guitar and the piano and plays in a band with friends.

“I’m in a band named Zoo Time Politics,” Endelman said. “It’s me, Kyle Willis, Sam Leven and Zack Cruz. I write most of the stuff and I sing for it and we just put our music on iTunes. So you can buy our album for like four dollars.”

The NYU Tisch program for the Arts is one of the top schools in the country for film. Although Endelman is majoring in film, he is not as familiar with it as he is music.

“My brother and I used to make videos with a random camera we had but they would just be the two of us being really weird,” Endelman said. “That’s the extent of my experience. And then for the film application I had to make a short film, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. It was okay, but I mostly just liked writing it. I just sent my script into Tisch, and it turned out well.”

A passion for music runs in the family for Endelman, whose brother Seth also plays the guitar and sings.

“Both of us sing and play guitar all the time,” he said. “Sometimes my friends mistake his playing and singing for mine. He just started guitar but he’s getting pretty good.”

His mom always encouraged him to pursue not just music, but acting as well.

“My mom really encouraged me,” Endelman said. “I took acting lessons for a while and I took theater and all that too. I was supposed to get an agent or something but my dad didn’t want me to. My mom’s always supported my music too. She’s the one who bought me an electric guitar first which got me into other
music.”

Aaron’s mom says that her son has always been interested in music.

“We started him and his siblings playing the piano when he was in third grade,” she said. “After that, whenever he showed interest in another instrument, he got lessons.”

Both of Endelman’s parents are musically inclined and participated in the fine arts in high school.

“I played percussion and was in choir in school,” she said. “His father was in high school and community theater musicals. But he has a cousin currently studying at Julliard and his aunt has sung with the San Francisco Symphony chorus for many years.”

Mrs. Endelman said that Aaron can across the Tisch program because of its legendary film school.

“He used the internet to investigate the best film schools in the nation,” she said. “We took him to visit the 2 top programs. He felt that New York and the Tisch program was the best fit for his personality. It also had the best internship potential and better allowed him to pursue his musical avocation.”

“Aaron has a really good singing voice and he’s a really good musician,” senior Lauren Lyssy. “He taught himself piano over the summer, which is really hard to do.”

Endelman is excited about his opportunities offered at NYU.

“I went up and visited NYU for the Accepted Students Weekend ,” he said. “Everyone there plays guitar or does something musical even though they might be majoring in something different. You can do so much through the Tisch program so I’m really excited to get involved. I’m going to focus on film writing and local production. You can get internships as a freshman which is really cool.”

Still, Endelman is not giving up hopes of a possible music career.

“I’m still going to do music, he said. “If the whole film thing falls through, it’s good to know I could just form a world-sensation band like the Beatles.”