Mayor Marchetti with contest winners Maso Casucci and Kayleigh Capitanio. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — For the month of April, Pittsfield High School students' jazz-inspired works bring color and design to the corridors of City Hall.

Kayleigh Capitanio secured the first-place award for the Berkshires Jazz Student Art Contest with a vibrant work depicting a guitar, piano, and music notes. The piece was created in art teacher Lisa Ostellino's classroom while listening to the music that inspired it.

"I didn't think that idea was going to be good until I started drawing," Capitanio explained. "And then I think what really helped was that we were listening to jazz music and it just got me in the groove, I guess."

Each year, Berkshire Jazz Inc. sponsors the student art contest to engage the community. The winning entry becomes the graphic for the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival, which kicks off on April 24 and runs for 11 days.

"These are all over Berkshire County now, so you're famous, at least locally, soon internationally," Berkshires Jazz President Edward Bride said to the winner, noting that Pittsfield Community Television was recording the award.

Sara Sofia Plazas Cortez came in second with a black-and-white drawing of musical instruments and musicians, and Maso Casucci was voted third place for his warm-toned work, which included a curved piano and fretboard.

"I really like the colors," Casucci explained, adding that a drawing of a person singing was painted over in the bottom right corner, making that portion abstract.

"Every single one usually has a piano. I wanted to include guitar because I play guitar, so I thought that was a cool addition to it."

Mayor Peter Marchetti said it is "fantastic" to see when he comes out of his office.