10th STL Teen Talent Competition Chooses 16 HS Acts For Final Event

On Sunday, March 8th, 46 metro area high school acts competed in the Semi-final round of the 10th Annual St. Louis Teen Talent Competition. St. Louis performing arts professionals judged the performances and narrowed the field to 16 acts (25 students) who will move on to the finals on Saturday, April 4th at 8pm at The Fabulous Fox Theatre .

The final competition is a professionally produced production that is FREE and open to the public. General Admission tickets are required and available now at no charge at The Fabulous Fox box office and through Metrotix. Finalists include a variety of singers, musicians, dancers, aerialists, and a juggler. (a list of acts can be found here). "We couldn't be happier with the level of talent. The students seem to get better and better each year," exclaimed Mary Strauss, Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation Board President.

In addition to the thrill of performing on the Fox Stage, contestants are eligible to win college scholarships, prizes, and performance opportunities. More than $47,000 in prizes, cash awards, and college scholarships will be distributed among the top competitors. Finalists also have the opportunity to perform at area events throughout the year. A full list of prizes along with official event information can be found on the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation's (FPACF) website.

Judges for the finals have careers spanning music, dance, and Broadway. This year's guest judges are:

Audrey Kwong (St. Louis Symphony Orchestra), Antonio Douthit-Boyd (COCA), Carl Nappa (Executive Music Producer), Taylor Louderman (2018 Tony Nominee); Ken Page (Award-winning Actor); Denise Thimes (Award-winning Jazz Vocalist and Recording Artist). Students will be judged on technical ability, stage presence, interpretation, and originality.

Tony Parise, Broadway actor, dancer, director, choreographer and St. Louis native, returns for his 10th year to write the script and direct the finals. "As we celebrate 10 years of Teen Talent, I couldn't be more proud of ALL of our past contestants. This year is going to be very special as we continue to promote the wildly diverse talents of the contestants and look back at the success of our past winners."

Parise will be working with choreographer Yvonne Meyer Hare (also a St. Louis native) to prepare the final acts to compete in front of a live audience at The Fox.

The community response to this FREE event has been significant as the program continues to grow over the past nine years with enthusiastic "sold out" crowds at The Fox. Annually 120,000+ viewers have watched the nineNetwork of Public Media's featured program on the final competition and we are pleased that the nineNetwork will once again broadcast the 2020 competition.

The 2019 winner was Joanna Serenko, a singer/songwriter from Kirkwood High School. Serenko, who is currently competing on NBC's The Voice, will return for a special performance on April 4th.

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