(WOODLAND PARK, NJ) -- On Thursday, April 10, 2025, Wharton Arts will honor award-winning American actor and baritone Norm Lewis with its Lifetime Achievement Award at its Annual Gala. In addition, the 2025 Wharton Arts Education Award will be bestowed upon Tricia Tunstall, a leading advocate for the importance of high-quality music education for all children.

Lewis was recently seen onstage starring in the national tour of the Tony Award-winning production of A Soldier's Play and in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End Concert of "Love Never Dies." He last appeared on Broadway in the Fall of 2021, starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle In The Square Theatre. He received several award nominations for his performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess and in 2014 made history as the first Black “Phantom” in The Phantom Of The Opera. He is an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and SAG Award nominee for his work onstage, screen, and in music. Lewis is a proud, founding member of Black Theatre United.

The Wharton Arts Lifetime Achievement Award distinguishes individuals who, during their lifetime, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the performing arts and represent a beacon of inspiration to Wharton Arts' students. Previous Wharton Arts Lifetime Achievement honorees were Jamie Bernstein, John Debney, Paul Shaffer, Angel Blue, and Rufus Reid.

The 2025 Wharton Arts Education Award will be bestowed upon Tricia Tunstall, a leading advocate for the importance of high-quality music education for all children. Her most recent book is Playing for Their Lives: The Global El Sistema Movement for Social Change Through Music (co-authored with Eric Booth; W.W. Norton 2016), which tells the story of the worldwide movement for creative youth development through music education with vivid accounts of youth ensemble programs in challenging environments around the world. Her previous book, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music (W.W. Norton, 2012), won a 2013 ASCAP Award and the 2016 Prix Des Muses in France; it has been published in six languages and has helped catalyze the global movement for social change through music. Tunstall is the co-founder and advisory editor of The Ensemble, the foremost communications hub for the international field of music education for social impact. She is a frequent speaker and consultant in the field and led the formation of the El Sistema New Jersey Alliance, the first U.S. statewide alliance of programs. She has maintained a piano studio in Maplewood, NJ for 30 years; her first book, Note by Note (Simon & Schuster, 2008), is a celebration of the piano lesson.

Wharton Arts’ Annual Gala will feature student performances and a live auction at the Westmount Country Club, 728 Rifle Camp Road in Woodland Park, NJ. To attend the gala and support Wharton Arts, including its silent auction, please visit WhartonArtsGala.org.

Wharton Arts’ mission is to offer accessible, high quality performing arts education that sparks personal growth and builds inclusive communities. Wharton Arts’ vision is for a transformative performing arts education in an inclusive community to be accessible for everyone.

Wharton Arts is New Jersey’s largest independent non-profit community performing arts education center serving nearly 2,000 students through a range of classes and ensembles. The 5 ensembles of the New Jersey Youth Chorus, an auditioned choral ensemble program for students in grades 3–12, encourage a love and appreciation of choral music while nurturing personal growth and creative development. The 15 ensembles of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, which serve over 500 students in grades 3–12 by audition, inspire young people to achieve musical excellence through high-level ensemble training and performance opportunities. Based in Paterson, the Paterson Music Project is an El Sistema-inspired program of Wharton Arts that uses music education as a vehicle for social action by empowering and inspiring young people to achieve their full potential through the community experience of ensemble learning and playing. From Pathways classes for young children to Lifelong Learning programs for adults, the Wharton Performing Arts School has a robust musical theater and drama program and offers both private and group classes for instruments and voice for all ages and all abilities. With the belief in the positive and unifying influence of music and that performing arts education should be accessible to all people regardless of their ability to pay, Wharton Arts offers need-based scholarships.

Wharton Arts is located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Paterson, NJ and reaches students from 12 counties. All of Wharton Arts’ extraordinary teaching artists, faculty members, and conductors hold degrees in their teaching specialty and have been vetted and trained to enable our students to achieve their personal best.