(WASHINGTON, DC and NEW YORK, NY) -- The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) are excited to announce the winners of the 2024-2025 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge. This program provides high school students with an unparalleled opportunity to develop and showcase original musical compositions that could potentially become part of full-scale musical theater productions. The winning songwriters will come to New York City this June to work with mentors and refine their songs for a special concert on Monday, June 16, 2025 at 7:30pm, at New World Stages and available to watch at arts.gov/songwriting and namt.org/challenge.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to partner with NAMT to create the opportunity for students across the country to express their creativity and further develop their songwriting and storytelling skills,” said NEA Senior Advisor Mary Anne Carter. “The winning songwriters are in for an unforgettable experience, and we can’t wait to see their final compositions performed on June 16.”
The 2024-2025 winners are: (grades and schools are as of the 2024-2025 school year)
(LEFT) Leela Kumar (RIGHT) Sadie Shapiro
Leela Kumar, an 11th grade student at Howell High School in Marlboro, New Jersey - “Dancing Through a Dream”— Ava, a high schooler, sits in the backroom of her home, guitar in hand, near the fireplace, softly strumming as she tries to write. It’s 12:23 AM—she should be asleep, but she can’t shake the weight of the moment. Yesterday, her English teacher gave her an assignment: present something meaningful to her in a 90-second speech. Ava decides to write a song on her guitar. Her best friend told her, "You can worry about what others think, or you can choose to be you." Now, Ava is wrestling with that choice. This song is all about the vulnerability and hope it takes to step out of the shadows and find the courage to share your voice with the world.
Sadie Shapiro, a 12th grade student at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. “The Way Iamb”— Avi is a literature-loving 11th grader at an all-girls’ school amidst a mercilessly competitive student council election. After the current student body president let everyone down by choosing an awful theme for the Winter Formal, the stakes regarding the next election are high—and Avi has been secretly hired to write speeches for both major candidates. In “The Way Iamb,” Avi decides to speak to her peers from her own point of view, instead of someone else claiming her words as their own.
Sydney Gray, a 12th grade student at Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Alabama - "Fall" — Meet Carlos, an ADHD high schooler who thrives on random factoids and video games! On the surface, Carlos is bright and bubbly, a very welcome personality for Nava Lee, an AuDHD teenage girl who struggles with making friends and feeling seen in her personal life. For her, Carlos is always there for Nava Lee when she needs it most, making him the bestest friend she could ever ask for. But for Carlos, the feelings between them run deeper than just friends.
Judah Brown, an 11th grade student at Owasso Preparatory Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma - “Fool”— From the new musical Feathered, “Fool” explores Apollo’s fears for Icarus, as he enacts his plan to fly. The central conflict—one between love and loss, and between hope and inevitability—drives the song “Fool.” It is Apollo’s desperate attempt to understand whether being there for Icarus makes him the true fool in the end, or if it is foolish to abandon the one he loves.
Karsten Wallace, an 11th grade student at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama - “Hello World”— A duet between a female robot infused with AI and its male creator, “Hello World” would serve as the final song in Act I of a larger musical as the song ends on a cliffhanger with the female AI Robot powering back on after her creator unplugged her because she wished to be free and did not love him. The song shifts back and forth between the female AI’s cries for liberation and its creator’s descent into madness as he slowly realizes that he has lost the only thing that he loves.
Gwendellyn Doerfler, a 12th grade student at Dewitt High School in Dewitt, Michigan - “Older”— During a get-together for her 18th birthday, Sara reveals to her friends that while she knows what she wants to do with her life, it isn't anything like what she hoped it would be. Sitting cross legged in a sleepover-style setting, her friends begin to hum, almost absentmindedly as Sara begins the song set over crunchy chords. “Older” is from the new musical 25, which focuses on nine members of the class of 2025 as they navigate their senior year of high school.
Elaina Stuppler, an 11th grade student at Lakeridge High School in Lake Grove, Oregon - “Second Chances”— In “Second Chances”, Maria Anna Mozart sings to her brother Wolfgang and the society that cast her aside. Once a prodigy alongside him, she was forced to abandon her musical dreams at 17 due to gender expectations in the 1760s. Now, as Wolfgang returns, she refuses to be treated as an afterthought and challenges the idea of second chances, having never been given a first.
Ali Lewis, a 12th grade student at Mercy McAuley High School in Cincinnati, Ohio - “Why Not?”— Set in 1953, this song is sung by the character Augusta Ansel, a 76-year-old woman who is blind and nearly deaf. She lives alone in a large, cursed mansion and she is haunted by the traumatic event of her husband being murdered by a mysterious man named Victor. She doesn’t like to talk about her complicated history because it hurts too much, and so in attempting to conceal this side of herself, she overcompensates with a loud, confident personality.
Excerpts of the winning song submissions and more information about the winners are available here. Over the next several weeks, each of these songs will be professionally orchestrated. Winning students will come to New York City this June where they will work with mentors and musicians to hone their orchestrations while learning about process, technique, and production. The final compositions will be performed by Broadway artists in a concert on Monday, June 16, at 7:30pm ET, available to watch live and on-demand at arts.gov/songwriting and namt.org/challenge. In addition, each winning student will receive a scholarship of $2,500, provided by the NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation.
Betsy King Militello, Executive Director of NAMT, said: “The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students reminds us that the future of musical theatre is bright, bold and brimming with possibility. NAMT is excited to welcome this year’s Winners to New York City. We are thrilled to help nurture these young voices and offer them a space to explore their artistry, connect with mentors and share their stories with the world. It’s an honor to stand alongside our partners in championing the next generation of musical theatre creators.”
The 2025 Music Team includes Music Supervisor Dylan Glatthorn, Music Director Anessa Marie Scolpini, and mentors Andrea Daly, Timothy Huang, and Jaime Lozano. The winning songs will be orchestrated by Faye Chiao, Teresa Lotz, and Anessa Marie Scolpini. The concert casting director is Michael Cassara, CSA. More information about the Songwriting Challenge mentors is available here.
The 2024-2025 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge kicked off last fall. Throughout the winter, students had access to online masterclasses and coaching sessions, among other educational resources. Students submitted a draft of their songs and received personalized feedback from successful musical theater artists, musicians, administrators, and educators. Students then revised their songs before entering their compositions for final judging. Overall, 90 submissions were received by students from 27 states.
A committee of leaders in the musical theater field reviewed the submissions and scored them based on published criteria: Avi Amon, Larson Grant Winning Composer (NY); Geri Auriemma, The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation (WA); Caley Beretta, Disney Theatrical Group (NY); Jim Colleran, Concord Theatricals (NY); Dylan Glatthorn, NAMT Festival Alumni Writer and MTSC Music Supervisor (NY); Lauren Grajewski, Harper Collins Productions (NY); Timothy Huang, NAMT Festival Alumni Writer and MTSC Mentor (NY); Terrance Jackson, Asolo Repertory Theatre (FL); Susan Lee, Broadway Education Alliance (NY); Cathy Masie, Masie Productions (NY); Irvin Mason Jr., NAMT Festival Emerging Artists Alumni and Director (NY); Henry Platt, Warner Chappell Music (NY); Kalani Queypo, NAMT Festival Alumni Writer (CA); Anessa Marie Scolpini, MTSC Music Director (NY); Brad Willcuts, Michigan State University (MI); Jacob Yandura, NAMT Festival Alumni Writer (NY); Jean-Paul Yovanoff, Musical Theatre Radio (ON).
The 2024-2025 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge is held in collaboration with Concord Theatricals, Disney Theatrical Group, NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation and The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation.
The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge is designed to inspire high school students to write songs that could be part of a musical theater production, using the wide range of musical styles represented in contemporary musicals. The goal of the program is to engage the musical theater field in nurturing the next generation of songwriters. Learn more about past winners and hear their final songs at arts.gov/songwriting.
The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge is open to high school students from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and U.S. territories. For more information on how to participate and to access songwriting tools and resources, visit namt.org/challenge.
Established by Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States.
The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, founded in 1985, is a not-for-profit organization serving the musical theatre community. Its mission is to be a catalyst for nurturing musical theatre development, production, innovation and collaboration. Their 150 organizational members and 60 individual members, located throughout 31 states and eight countries abroad, are some of the leading producers of musical theatre in the world and include theatres, presenting organizations, higher education programs and individual producers. Among the 300 musicals launched by NAMT's Annual Festival of New Musicals are Come From Away, Lempicka, The Drowsy Chaperone, Lizard Boy, Teeth, Gun & Powder, King of Pangea, Benny & Joon, Darling Grenadine, Ordinary Days, It Shoulda Been You and Thoroughly Modern Millie, among many others, representing 575 writers.
