The NEA’s Gen Z Musicals Program
“CAN IT BE FASTER?” ASKED 15-YEAR-OLD SOPHIA Schwaner, peering over the sound board at the recording studio. “Instead of singing ‘gra-ave,’ where both of the notes are equal value, can you do ‘gra-aaave?’” she suggested, elongating the second syllable. The high school sophomore from Staunton, Va., was holding court at Reservoir Studios in New York City, overseeing the recording of her original song “At Sea,” an epic ballad about the only woman recorded to have fought in the ancient Persian Wars. The half note turned whole, and Schwaner nodded in approval as vocalist Ashley Loren, currently in Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway, made the change. “I like that!” effused Schwaner.
Schwaner is one of seven high school students whose songs were chosen for the 2019 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge, a nationwide contest headed up by the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by the American Theatre Wing, the organization behind the Tony Awards. With additional support from Disney and Samuel French, the young composers receive mentorship, a recording session with professional musicians and vocalists in New York—which will be compiled in an album—and the publication of their songs. (In addition, the National Music Publishers’ Association S.O.N.G.S. Foundation has gifted the young writers with scholarship prizes.)
The contest, now in its second round after a pilot launch in 2016, received more than 200 submissions from high school students this year. “The NEA partnered with the American Theatre Wing to make it a
