#JoeyShine Video Contest Winner Announced for NYMF's Joey Contreras in Concert

The Grand Prize winner of the Polish Your Passion (www.pypnyc.com) and NYMF's Joey Contreras in Concert inaugural #JoeyShine Video Contest is Amanda Lopez. She will perform her rendition of the competition song, "Waiting for More," at NYMF's Joey Contreras in Concert on July 16th at 8pm at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theater at The Pershing Square Signature Center. She joins a stellar list of special guest stars including Broadway's Ben Fankhauser and Adam Kaplan, as well as Alex Newell from Glee.

Amanda Lopez is originally from Miami, Florida and is a 2015 graduate of The Boston Conservatory. Some of her recent credits include Carrie: The Musical (Speakeasy Stage Company); The Museum of Useless Desire, Disney's On the Record! (The Boston Conservatory). NYMF's Joey Contreras in Concert will mark her NYC & NYMF debut.

The 2nd place winner in the contest was Pablo Torres (a junior at The Boston Conservatory) and the 3rd place winner is Kate Suppes (a recent graduate from The Hartt School). They will be joining other finalists, Hanna Shykind and Nicholas Trawick, singing backup vocals on the songs, "Constellations" and "The Beat of Love". The other Top 20 Finalists include Stephen Brower, Myriam Burger, Katie Dolan, Diana Fernandez, Mildred Gil, Daniela Kaplun, Anastasia Lallos, Thomas McCoy, Emily McNally, Symone Mitchell, Ethan Riordan, Javier Romero, Jasmine Sharma, Emily Tolnay and Daniel Scott Walton.

The Top 20 Finalists all received singing and acting thru song video feedback from Polish Your Passion Co-Founders Caroline Selia and Tom Morin to look their best for the judges' panel and were invited to come to the National Opera Center in NYC to record their professional quality final draft videos with Joseph Patrick Conroy of Amerikana Media and Franchesco German.

This year, the judges' panel included Frankie Grande (YouTube Sensation, Big Brother fan favorite, & upcoming judge of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Broadway's Newsies, Co-Creator of the web series Submissions Only, & star of the upcoming Broadway musical, Tuck Everlasting), and Eden Espinosa, (star of Broadway's Wicked, Rent, and the debut album "Look Around").

The New York Musical Theatre Festival nurtures the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theatre. Now in its twelfth year, the Festival is the premier musical theatre event in the world. The preeminent site for launching new musicals and discovering new talent, the Festival provides an affordable platform for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theatre fans. More than 90 Festival shows have gone on to productions on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters in all 50 states, and in more than 20 countries worldwide. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award® and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition of its work "creating and nurturing new musical theatre, ensuring the future of this essential art form." NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2015 is sponsored by Fuzzrocket, PRG, TheaterMania, Clear Channel Spectacolor, and The Village Voice, and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

The NYMF PASS is a great way to experience The New York Musical Theatre Festival. With a NYMF PASS, you can get into the theater before individual ticket holders. Passes also offer the exclusive ability to book tickets before they go on sale to the public. NYMF Passholder ticket booking begins June 1. Individual tickets go on sale June 15. The 2015 New York Musical Theatre Festival will take place July 7-27. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.