2024 Overture Awards Finals Competition to Take Place in March

The Cincinnati Arts Association will present the 2024 Overture Awards Finals Competition. The Overture Awards provides $3,000 to six area high school students for education and training expenses, with eighteen finalists each winning $1,000. The program also includes Arts Educator Awards for Excellence in Arts Instruction totaling $2,000.

Tickets are on sale now at www.CincinnatiArts.org, (513) 621-ARTS [2787], and the Aronoff Center Ticket Office.

The Overture Awards Finals Competition and Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at 1:00 PM at the Aronoff Center's Jarson-Kaplan Theater. Winners will be announced immediately following the competition. The Visual Art Finalists Exhibition will be showcased in the Aronoff Center's Center Stage Room (adjacent to the Weston Art Gallery on 7th Street) from Tuesday, March 12 – Saturday, March 23, 2024.

This year, 235 students applied to compete in one of six artistic disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, and Vocal Music. The Overture Awards was developed to recognize, encourage, and reward excellence in the arts among Tri-state students in grades 9-12. It also provides students an opportunity to share their talents and interests among their peers in a supportive environment outside of their individual schools. There are three levels of competition: Regional, Semi-Final, and Final.

The Overture Awards Regional Competitions were held virtually in January 2024. The top twenty-five percent of competitors in each discipline advanced to the Semi-Finals, which were held at the Aronoff Center on February 1-3. Twenty-four finalists will compete in the Finals Competition at the Aronoff Center's Jarson-Kaplan Theater on March 16.

Now in its 28th year, The Overture Awards was launched in 1996 by the Cinergy Foundation (now Duke Energy) and Leadership Cincinnati (a program of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber). The Overture Awards is funded and administered by the Cincinnati Arts Association, which operates and manages the Aronoff Center and Music Hall. The Overture Awards also relies on hundreds of volunteers from the community who help raise funds, adjudicate, manage the competitions, and nurture the program.

The 2024 Overture Awards Finalists

CREATIVE WRITING

• Marguerite Flaig, grade 11, Ursuline Academy
• Hailey Hartman, grade 12, William Mason High School
• Nkemdilim (Anna Rose) Matu, grade 12, William Mason High School
• Lillian Waltz, grade 11, Indian Hill High School

DANCE

• Nora Doyle, grade 9, School for Creative and Performing Arts / Just Off Broadway
• Isabella Shearer, grade 12, School for Creative and Performing Arts / Just Off Broadway
• Alexandria Yetter, grade 11, Sycamore High School / Hairston School of Dance
• Audrey Zuziak, grade 11, Dixie Heights High School / Expressions Dance Theater

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

• Christy Kim, grade 12, William Mason High School
• Grace Kim, grade 11, William Mason High School
• Erica Nam, grade 11, Walnut Hills High School
• Keliang Yao, grade 11, The Seven Hills School / University of Michigan

 

THEATER

• Oluwatobiloba Aina, grade 12, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy / The Musical Arts Center
• Arabella Bertucci, grade 12, Campbell County High School
• Natalie Hudepohl, grade 12, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy / The Musical Arts Center / Cincinnati Music Academy
• Ali Lewis, grade 11, Mercy McAuley High School

 

VISUAL ART

• Isabella Brink, grade 12, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy
• Rylee Dissinger, grade 12, Oak Hills High School
• Alisha Verma, grade 12, William Mason High School
• Ellen Zhang, grade 12, William Mason High School

 

VOCAL MUSIC  

• Ella Clark, grade 12, Dixie Heights High School / Talia Zoll Studio of Music
• Jacob Eddingfield, grade 12, Elder High School / Michelle Wells Voice Studio
• Ishanvi Karthikeyan, grade 11, Lakota West High School
• Evan Stuart, grade 12, Highlands High School / Keen Voice Studio

 

Arts Educator Award for Excellence in Arts Instruction

The Arts Educator Award promotes and rewards excellence in arts instruction throughout Greater Cincinnati. An educator who teaches any of the following arts disciplines may be nominated: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, and Vocal Music. They can be a high school arts specialist, teaching artist working with high school students, or an arts professional or educator providing private lessons or instruction. Nominations for the award must come from students between the ages of 14-19 who are currently enrolled in high school. Nominations are made by submitting an on-line application with a three-minute video about why the nominee is an exemplary arts educator.

The recipients of the Arts Educator Award may utilize their prize money to strengthen their program or practice, e.g. an artist fee for a guest lecturer or master class, the purchase of equipment, or a professional learning opportunity such as tuition assistance for either the educator or for students to study with the recipient or another professional.

Arts Educator Award Nominees

John Ingram, Private Instructor

Discipline: Instrumental Music

Nominated by John Paul Shannon

Lincoln Chapman, Musical Arts Center

(posthumous nomination)

Discipline: Vocal Music

Nominated by Alice Pooley

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