Overture's Rising Stars Returns with $1,000 Grand Prize

Overture Center's Rising Stars, dedicated to discovering and elevating local talent, returns for a fourth year to showcase the wealth of talent in the community. Registration is free and open now at overture.org/risingstars.

"We pride ourselves on encouraging and honoring local aspiring artists, whether it be through performance or educational opportunities," said Tim Sauers, Overture's vice president of programming and community engagement. "Rising Stars has really helped to uncover local talent, like past finalists and winners Forte Fusion, Dr. Roderquita K. Moore, William Taylor and Elijah Edwards, and provides them exposure and other performance opportunities to advance their artistic careers."

This year, a preparatory workshop will allow participants the chance to perform and receive constructive feedback from local professionals before the audition process, which begins in August.

Rising Stars schedule:

Workshop

Saturday, July 15 from 1-3 p.m. | Overture Center for the Arts (201 State Street)

Auditions

Saturday, August 5, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. | Full Compass (9770 Silicon Prairie Pkwy.)

- Bands must register for the audition at Full Compass

Saturday, August 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. | Overture Center for the Arts (201 State Street)

The Finals

Saturday, September 9, 7:30 p.m. | Capitol Theater, Overture Center for the Arts (201 State Street)

Registration instructions for all events can be found at overture.org/risingstars.

Those selected from the auditions by the panel of judges will be invited to The Finals at Overture and will come together on the historic Capitol Theater stage to perform for the community. Cash prizes of $750 will be awarded to Rising Stars in the following three age categories who are named Overture's Rising Stars: Youth (6-12), Teen (13-18), and Adult (19+). The grand prize winner will receive $1,000 and the opportunity to perform at Overture next season.

Judges:

Pacal "DJ Pain 1" Bayley

Jessica Lanius

Scott O'Donnell

Barbara Bolan

Clyde Mayberry

2016's Winner/Finalists:

2016 Grand Prize Winner: William Taylor (dancer) will perform as an opening act for Cas Public: Symphonie Dramatique on Friday, October 20 in Capitol Theater.

2016 Rising Stars Finalist: Elijah Edwards (vocalist) sang at Overture's 2017/18 Season Announcement and is performing in local productions with Theatre LILA.

2015 Rising Star Winner/2016 Finalist: Dr. Roderquita K. Moore (vocalist) performed at Overture's 2016/17 Season Announcement and at the Duck Soup Cinema series.

2016 Rising Star Winners: Forte Fusion (music and dance group) continues to showcase in their hometown of Mount Horeb, and has been invited to perform on a Royal Caribbean Cruise in 2018.

Overture's Rising Stars was premiered as a local talent search aimed at highlighting and celebrating members of our local communities during Overture's 10th Anniversary. In its first year, the program garnered more than 200 acts auditioned at six sites across Dane County.

This project is supported by the Arts Access Fund of the Madison Community Foundation, Madison-Kipp Corporation, and Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, the Evjue Foundation Inc., the charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Madison, Wisconsin, features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and five galleries where national and international touring artists, ten resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. Visit Overture.org for more.

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