Students attending high school in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles-area counties are invited to apply to the Music Center’s Spotlight Program for students studying the performing and visual arts.
Now in its 24th year, Spotlight is one of the nation’s premier arts education and scholarship programs for teens, providing arts training by professional artists and awarding more than $100,000 in scholarships.
Music Center’s Spotlight Program is free and open to all Southern California students of all talent levels. Every student who applies to Spotlight will have an opportunity to learn through professional feedback and gain knowledge to improve his or her art and audition skills. Applications are now available online at musiccenter.org/spotlight. Performing arts applications must be received by Oct. 17, and the visual arts application deadline is Dec. 1.
The Music Center Spotlight program has launched numerous professional careers, including pop musical sensation Adam Lambert, American Ballet Theatre’s Misty Copeland, Broadway’s Erin Mackey, and classical musician Liang Wang, principal oboist with the New York Philharmonic. Many alumni return to the program and participate as judges and class instructors.
All students enrolled in the program work with professionals to develop audition skills and knowledge in their performance and visual arts disciplines. Performing arts categories are ballet, non-classical dance, classical voice, non-classical voice, classical instrumental, and jazz instrumental. Visual arts categories are photography and two-dimensional art. Students who are selected by professional judges to advance as semifinalists participate in master classes, compete to perform at the Music Center or exhibit their artwork in a professional art gallery, and receive cash scholarships totaling $100,000. First grand prize finalists in each category receive $5,000 scholarships; runners-up get $4,000. Honorable mentions receive $250 scholarships, and semifinalists receive $100 scholarships.
For more information about the Music Center Spotlight program, visit musiccenter.org/spotlight or call (213) 972-7211.
Arts Briefs is compiled by Arts Editor Shelly Cone. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Sep 15-22, 2011.