We are excited to announce the winners of the 2024-2025 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students, a joint initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT). This prestigious program provides high school students with an unparalleled opportunity to develop and showcase their musical compositions, that could potentially become part of full-scale original musical theatre productions.
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 7:30 p.m. 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.
The 2024-2025 winners are:
(grades and schools are as of the 2024-2025 school year)
- “Dancing Through a Dream” by Leela Kumar – 11th Grade from Marlboro, NJ
- “Fall” by Sydney Gray – 12th Grade from Fairhope, AL
- “Fool” by Judah Brown – 11th Grade from Tulsa, OK
- “Hello World” by Karsten Wallace – 11th Grade from Madison, AL
- “Older” by Gwendellyn Doerfler – 12th Grade from Dewitt, MI
- “Second Chances” by Elaina Stuppler – 11th Grade from Portland, OR
- “The Way Iamb” by Sadie Shapiro – 12th Grade from Scotch Plains, NJ
- “Why Not?” by Ali Lewis – 12th Grade from Cincinnati, OH
Meet the winners and listen to the demos of their winning songs:
(grades and schools are as of the 2024-2025 school year)
Leela Kumar
A 11th grade student at Howell High School in Marlboro, New Jersey
Leela Kumar is a junior at Howell High School in Monmouth County, New Jersey. She loves performing and songwriting, and has written, produced, directed and starred in an original musical called Dancing Through a Dream at her school. She continued to expand and evolve her work during her time at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and through her experiences at Juilliard. When she’s not composing musicals or rewriting lyrics at 2 a.m., she enjoys tempting fate by ordering avocado handrolls despite being highly allergic to sushi.
“Dancing Through a Dream”
Music & Lyrics by Leela Kumar
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.
Sydney Gray
A 12th grade student at Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Alabama
Sydney Gray is a Senior at Fairhope High School and plans to attend the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in the Fall as an Acting (Musicianship) Major. She’s been writing songs since she was 10 years old, and is currently working on many projects, including her original musical Anavaly, which includes her two award-winning songs “Little Miss Heard But Not Seen” and “Fall.” After winning the NAMT Songwriting Challenge last year, Sydney began posting her songs online, and has started using her platform to spread awareness about teen mental health.
“Fall”
Music & Lyrics by Sydney Gray
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
Judah Brown is a musical theatre writer, performer and multi-instrumentalist based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A lifelong musician, he began acting in fifth grade with Oliver! and has been telling stories through stage and song ever since. His current project is Feathered: The Musical, an original work reimagining the Greek myth of Icarus. Judah is a proud member of Clark Youth Theatre, which he calls his artistic home. He is currently a junior at Owasso Preparatory Academy, concurrently pursuing a liberal arts degree at Tulsa Community College and a certificate in Performing Arts Industry Essentials from NYU Tisch.
“Fool”
Music & Lyrics by Judah Brown
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
Karsten Wallace is a junior at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama. He loves playing piano and guitar, singing and songwriting in his free time. His favorite artists are Childish Gambino and Tyler, the Creator and his favorite musical theatre composers are Alan Menken and Robert Lopez. His favorite musicals are The Book of Mormon, Newsies, and Hamilton.
“Hello World”
Music & Lyrics by Karsten Wallace
“Hello World” is 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
Gwendellyn Doerfler is a senior at Dewitt High School in Dewitt Michigan. She is a songwriter across multiple genres including jazz, country, pop and musical theatre. As a solo performing artist, Gwen constantly seeks to create connection with her audience through vulnerability and authenticity. Her performances around her hometown and beyond have made her well known in the Lansing area. She is committed to attend Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee in the fall for a degree in Commercial Music; Songwriting.
“Older”
Music & Lyrics by Gwendellyn Doerfler
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
Elaina Stuppler is a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist creating music with themes of positive change. She was recently featured on NPR’s “From the Top” as a Musicians & the Environment Fellow, and selected for the Seattle Symphony’s “Dear Humanity” Concert. She is a three-time YoungArts Winner, DownBeat’s Outstanding Jazz Composition Award recipient, and Luna Composition Lab Fellow. Elaina participates with the Portland Youth Philharmonic and is All Classical Radio’s Young Artist in Residence. Her compositions have been played by the Oregon Symphony and the International Contemporary Ensemble. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House and the Hollywood Bowl.
“Second Chances”
Music & Lyrics by Elaina Stuppler
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.
Sadie Shapiro
A 12th grade student at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Scotch Plains, New Jersey
Sadie Shapiro is a songwriter and playwright from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. She has been writing since she was five years old, and has been involved in many different aspects of theatre for over a decade. She attends Montclair Kimberley Academy, and will be a freshman at Smith College in the fall. She has also been successfully sticking to her New Year’s resolution from 2024, when she decided to write at least one song per month.
“The Way Iamb”
Music & Lyrics by Sadie Shapiro
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.
Ali Lewis
A 12th grade student at Mercy McAuley High School in Cincinnati, Ohio
Ali Lewis is from Cincinnati, Ohio, and she is a senior at Mercy McAuley High School. Her musical, The Lost and Found, features sixteen original songs and she hopes to publish this work in her future. When Ali is not at the piano composing, she enjoys performing in musicals—and she has won three regional awards for various roles that she has portrayed. Ali hopes to use these performance abilities as a tool to help her as a composer, and she will be studying music composition at Miami University.
“Why Not?”
Music & Lyrics by Ali Lewis
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.
NAMT Executive Director Betsy King Militello on Celebrating the Winners:
“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 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.
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.
Challenge Accepted! A Concert Presenting the Winners of the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students
Experience the exceptional talent of these high school songwriters from across the nation, brought to life by Broadway artists!
About the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge
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.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
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. To learn more, visit arts.gov.
About the National Alliance for Musical Theatre
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.