See the Final Presentation of the 2018 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge | Playbill

Photos See the Final Presentation of the 2018 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge Almost 200 high school-aged songwriters around the United States submitted songs for the competition from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge Finalists with Heather Hitchens (L) and Jane Chu (R) Stephanie Berger

The finalists for the 2018 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge convened in New York to participate in a weekend of workshops with musicians, singers, songwriters, and producers. The weekend ended with a live-streamed performance of the six songs, judged by a panel of musical theatre professionals April 23. The competition received over 200 applications from high school composers in 36 states.

The finalists (five individual composers and one pair) will each have their songs published by Samuel French, and the national champion received a $25,000 scholarship courtesy of the National Music Publishers Association’s S.O.N.G.S. (Supporting Our Next Generation of Songwriters) Foundation.

Taking home the first place prize was David Volpini (2019) of Chippew Valley High School in Macomb, Michigan. In second place were Eliza Corrington (class of 2018) and Braxton Gerald Carr (2019) of DaVinci Academy in Ogden, Utah. In third place was Tucker Donelan (2018) of Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts.

Flip through photos of the evening below:

See the Final Presentation of the 2018 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge

Partnering with the NEA on the second annual competition are the American Theatre Wing, Disney Theatrical Productions, Samuel French, Inc and Playbill.

For information on Playbill's education platforms, visit PLAYBILLder.com.

 
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