The winners of the 2025 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) have been revealed.
The competition provides high school students with the chance to develop and showcase original musical compositions that could potentially become part of full-scale productions. The winning songwriters will come to New York City this June to work with mentors and refine their songs for a special concert on June 16 at New World Stages.
The 2024-2025 winners are Leela Kumar, an 11th grade student at Howell High School in Marlboro, New Jersey; Sydney Gray, a 12th grade student at Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Alabama; Judah Brown, an 11th grade student at Owasso Preparatory Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Karsten Wallace, an 11th grade student at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama; Gwendellyn Doerfler, a 12th grade student at Dewitt High School in Dewitt, Michigan; Elaina Stuppler, an 11th grade student at Lakeridge High School in Lake Grove, Oregon; Sadie Shapiro, a 12th grade student at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Scotch Plains, New Jersey; and Ali Lewis, a 12th grade student at Mercy McAuley High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Excerpts from the winning submissions and more about the winners is available.
