2011 Rising Star Applications Now Available

The Howard County Arts Council is a private, non-profit organization that serves Howard County by fostering the arts, artists, and arts organizations. HCAC is accepting applications for the 2011 Rising Star Performing Artist Professional Development Award. Applications can be requested from the Arts Council by calling 410-313-2787 or info@hocoarts.org.

Applications are also available for downloading on www.hocoarts.org. The early no-fee application deadline is October 1, 2010. Applications submitted between October 2nd and the final deadline of November 1st require the payment of a $10 application fee.

The Rising Star Award competition is open to individual performers, ages 18-35, who live, train, work, or perform regularly in Howard County or have done so in the past. Review criteria include artistic expression, technical ability, and stage presence. Up to ten selected finalists will perform at the Arts Council's annual benefit gala, Celebration of the Arts in Howard County, on the evening of March 26, 2011. The event audience of over 500 artists, arts patrons, business and political representatives, and other community members will then vote for their favorite performer. The winner of the popular vote will receive the top $5,000 Rising Star Emerging Performing Artist Award on stage that night.

The Rising Star Award was established by the Arts Council in 2003 to provide opportunities for emerging performing artists with roots in Howard County and to assist them in the development and practice of their art. The goals of the Rising Star Award are: to encourage professional development in all performing arts disciplines, to recognize individual achievement in the performing arts, to support performing artists with strong ties to Howard County, and to
provide a venue for artists through a performance of award finalists.

Past Winners: 2010 winner and cellist, Caleb Jones, has performed along many great actors at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC and most recently with actress Ruby Dee Davis in Atlanta, GA. Jones attended Long Reach High School and is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Music. 2009 winner, DeWanda Wise, a Maryland Distinguished Scholar of the Arts, attended Atholton High School and received her BFA at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Upon graduation she received a Tisch Scholar award, the Atlantic Studio Award, and served as the BFA Representative of her graduating class. Presently she works in film, theatre, and television. Dancer Alicia Graf, the 2003 Rising Star Award winner, grew up in Columbia and received her dance training under Donna Pidel at the Ballet Royale Academy. At the age of seventeen she moved to New York City. Graf toured with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, graduated from Columbia University and, in 2005, joined the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. 2004 Rising Star winner, actress/singer Carly Hughes, graduated from Wilde Lake High School, received her BFA in Musical Theatre from Penn State University. She is the recipient of a 2003 Princess Grace Scholarship and Grace Le Vine Theatre Award, to honor outstanding achievement in dramatic arts. Clarinetist Mark Dubac won the award in 2005. The Atholton High School and Julliard School graduate recently received his Master's degree at the University of Wisconsin's Peck School of the Arts and is working toward a professional orchestral career. 2006 marked the first year that three winners were selected: singer Korey Jackson, cellist Caleb Jones, and pianist Alex Brown. Violinist Tao Chang Yu, actress/singer Caroline Bowman and actor/singer Phil Olejack were 2007's winners. In 2008, pianist Alexander Francis, singer Colleen Daly and monologist Courtney Bell received awards.

For more information and eligibility requirements, call 410-313-ARTS (2787) or visit www.hocoarts.org.

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