New York Youth Symphony's Musical Theater Program Now Accepting Applications for 24-25 Season

New York Youth Symphony's Musical Theater Program is now receiving applications for the 2024/2025 season. The New York Youth Symphony's Musical Theater Songwriting (MTS) Program is designed to lead students through a range of musical theater songwriting processes. Whether their background is as a classical composer, singer-songwriter, performer, writer, or some cool hyphenate, this program will provide students with the opportunity to both study the fundamentals of musical theater songwriting and take artistic risks.

Led by Director Michael Kooman, weekly sessions will feature seminars, workshops, and masterclasses with some of Broadway's most distinguished composers, writers, performers, musicians, producers, directors, and designers. Throughout the year, students will also have the unique opportunity to workshop new material with performers from other theater educational programs, as well as a Broadway pit band.

MTS interviews will be held on September 25th, and September 26th at the NYYS Office at 110 West 40th Street, New York, NY.

Students can apply at www.nyys.org/apply. Upon completing the online application, students will receive a confirmation email with a link to schedule your interview. All interviews will be held in-person. Interviews are 15 minutes long, and at the interview, applicants will meet with the Director and the Assistant Director of the Musical Theater Songwriting Program. Each applicant will be asked about the materials they submitted as part of their supplemental form, and as well as their reasons for applying to the MTS program.

As part of the application, applicants will be asked to submit two (2) original work samples. Work samples can be an original song (mp3 recording), an original composition (mp3 recording), an original lyric or poem (PDF document), or a scene from an original script (PDF document). If they are attaching an original song or composition, please attach a SECONDARY document with the lyrics. If they do not have two existing work samples, they are encouraged to create new ones for the application.

To participate in the NYYS MTS's 2024/2025 season, applicants must be between the ages of 12 and 22. Applicant's date of birth must be between May 25, 2002, and November 24, 2012. Please do not apply if your birth date falls outside of these dates as you will not be eligible for the program, and we are not able to refund your application fee.

The registration fee for the Musical Theater Songwriting program for the 2024/25 season will be $395.
NYYS recognizes that the cost of application and registration fees may be prohibitive for some students, and that access to technology may be a barrier to participation. Financial aid, application fee waivers, work-study, and technology funds are available to help offset these expenses. Financial need is the major consideration when awarding assistance. We ask that students seek funding through their personal networks in addition to completing the financial aid application as funds are limited. The application for financial assistance is within the main application.