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Christopher Terrell Leysath, a 2008 graduate of Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, has been awarded this year's J.B. Hunt Scholarship.

The $1,000 scholarship is sponsored by the Exotics Band Foundation and funded through the Exotics Band Christmas Eve Reunion Gala.

The J.B. Hunt Scholarship is given in honor of long-time Orangeburg music instructor James B. Hunt, who served as the first and only band director at Wilkinson High School, the first band director at Sharperson and Belleville junior high schools and Brookdale Middle School and organizer and director of the first band at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School. The original Exotics members were among his students.

Leysath is the 17-year-old son of Horace and Tarzy Leysath. Since beginning his piano instruction at the age of 7, he has become well-known throughout the state for his music skills. In the past, Leysath has attended the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts Summer Academy and the Florida State University Honors Piano Camp in Tallahassee, Fla.

He has been awarded the Silver Medal in Classical Music at the National NAACP "ACT-SO" Competition in Washington, D.C., received a "Superior" rating at the S.C. Music Educator's Association Piano Festival and was selected to be a member of the 2008 S.C. All-State Chorus at Winthrop University. Leysath is currently a private piano student of Dr. Scott Price at the University of South Carolina.

At O-W, Leysath served as student accompanist for the O-W Concert Choir, pianist for the O-W Jazz Ensemble and a mallet percussionist for the Orange Pride Marching Band. He is a musician at New Covenant United Methodist Church in Bowman.

In the fall, Leysath plans to attend the University of South Carolina, where he will major in choral music education.

Special to The T&D

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