Photo Provided St. Clairsville High School graduate Emily Dubinsky makes her national television debut with the New York University Chamber Choir on NBC’s Today Show on Friday.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Emily Dubinsky, a 2024 St. Clairsville High School graduate, spent her Friday morning singing to the world.

Dubinsky and her New York University Chamber Choir group performed on NBC’s Today Show, singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in honor of the 60 years since its animated special debuted on NBC.

Dubinsky is a college freshman who auditioned and was accepted into the vocal performance program at NYU, known as one of the premiere programs in the country. Entrance into this program is contingent upon the student meeting rigorous academic requirements.

She earned a scholarship covering all of her tuition.

“I previously went to the contemporary vocal performance summer program last year. I auditioned for that and got into it and that’s what sparked my joy for the program. I realized how much I love the city and NYU,” she said.

As an artist, she has performed locally at Blame My Roots Festival, Barnesville Pumpkin Festival, Washington Wildthings games, and other miscellaneous sporting and church events. Last summer, she auditioned and attended an exclusive Contemporary Vocal Music Workshop at NYU, where she was under the tutelage of many music industry professionals including Vanessa Williams, according to a news release regarding the Today Show performance.

She added that her major at NYU is vocal performance, noting that her freshman class only includes 38 people, allowing the class members to quickly become a tight-knit community.

“We’re a very small, tight-knit group. Everyone knows each other, and I love all of my professors and have been enjoying all of my classes,” Dubinsky said. “I just really enjoy singing and sharing that with people and trying to grow my voice.”

She also reflected on the television appearance.

“It was a really cool experience. We had a bright and early call of 6:15 in the morning,” Dubinsky said. “All of the anchors like Hoda (Kotb) and Savannah (Guthrie) came out after we sang and told us all how we did such a wonderful job, and it was just really cool with the crowd and being on TV.”

She added that although this was her first time being on national television she has been on local television before, citing several performances during various Christmas parades throughout the Ohio Valley.

When speaking about how the performance came to fruition, Dubinsky said choir director Paul Speiser was emailed by a producer of the Today Show and proceeded to ask the students if it would be something they would be interested in participating in. She said the choir responded with a unanimous “Yes!”

She said her favorite part of the experience was getting to sing in front of everyone, adding that she loves Christmas.

“It was very special for me to sing Rudolph because it was the 60th anniversary of it being on NBC and it was just a very special moment to share with my fellow classmates and the people watching on the Today Show,” she said.

Dubinsky said she isn’t sure what she wants to do once she graduates, but she knows for sure that she wants to continue her singing career.

“My main goal is to continue my singing career and eventually write and perform my own songs and collaborate with others in NYU and connect with different music industry professionals in the city and try and grow that career path,” she said.