NAMT Launches Season Two Of New@NAMT Podcast Featuring Emerging Musical Theatre Student Songwriters

National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced that Season Two of New@NAMT: The Next Wave of Musical Theatre Writers is now airing, featuring conversations with the winners of the 2023/2024 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre for high school students to develop and showcase musical compositions that could be a part of a musical theater production. 

New@NAMT airs weekly on Monday nights at 7pm EST at musicaltheatreradio.com, and weekly episodes are available to stream everywhere listeners prefer to find podcasts on Tuesdays. For more info, visit namt.org/podcasts.

About New@NAMT Season Two

New@NAMT: The Next Wave of Musical Theatre Writers is a bite-sized podcast series dedicated to spotlighting the emerging voices in musical theatre. Hosted by Jean-Paul Yovanoff in partnership with Musical Theatre Radio and a rotating cast of NAMT alumni writers, each 20- to 30-minute episode features quick interviews providing a unique glimpse into the creative minds behind the next big musicals. Whether you’re a producer, theatre lover or even simply curious about the future of musical theatre, New@NAMT offers a front-row seat to a new generation of writers.

Season Two of New@NAMT features the winning songwriters—one duo and six individuals—that were selected by a panel of leaders in the musical theatre field from more than 100 submissions and hail from seven states:

·Gwendellyn Doerfler (Dewitt, MI)

·Ale Fonseca (Miami, FL)

·Sydney Gray (Fairhope, AL)

·Tabitha Moore (Valley Stream, NY)

·Isabella Nguyen & Maya Johnson (Little Rock, AR)

·Luisa Paraguassu (Mooresville, NC)

·Owen Yeh-Lee (Palo Alto, CA)

Joining the student songwriters are their program mentors, professional musical theatre artists that supported the students during their development of their song as well as the orchestrators that helped bring the winning songs to life:

·Joey Contreras (program mentor)

·Dylan Glatthorn (music supervisor)

·Timothy Huang (program mentor)

·Teresa Lotz (orchestrator)

·Jaime Lozano (program mentor)

·Zeniba Now (program mentor)

·Jesse J. Sanchez (orchestrator)

·Anessa Marie Scolpini (music director & orchestrator)

Important for 2025:

Draft 1 Submissions for the 2024/2025 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students are due on Friday, January 31st. A Draft 1 Submissions receive feedback from a panel of industry professionals. A submission is one song, and more information can be found at namt.org/challenge.

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.

The 2023-2024 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge kicked off last fall. Over the fall and winter, students had access to online masterclasses and coaching sessions, among other songwriting tips. Students submitted a draft of their songs and received personalized constructive critique from successful musical theater songwriters. Students then had the option to revise their songs before entering their compositions for final judging. Overall, more than 100 submissions were received by students from 34 states. A panel of leaders in the musical theater field reviewed the submissions and scored them based on published criteria. 

A special concert in June 2024 featured the seven winning songs in live performance by Broadway artists including Telly Leung, Desi Oakley, Shereen Pimentel and many more. The full winning concert is now available to stream on namt.org/challenge.

The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge is held in collaboration with Concord Theatricals, Disney Theatrical Productions, and NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation.

About the National Endowment for the Arts

Established by Congress in 1965, 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 equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States.

About the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT)

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 140 organizational members and 60 individual members, located throughout 31 states and six 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. In 2024, NAMT reached $1 million in awards to member organizations through NAMT granting programs including the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals and the Impact & Exploration Fund. 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. Last year, nearly 150 students from 33 states participated in the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with NAMT. Discover more at namt.org.