The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to announce the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge will return in Fall 2023. Held in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the 2023-2024 program will include even more opportunities for high school students to develop and showcase musical compositions that could be part of a musical theater production.
This national contest began in 2016 as a way to nurture the next generation of songwriters across a wide range of musical styles represented in contemporary musicals. Students who submit an original song to the 2023-2024 program will have access to a wealth of web-based resources on exploring storytelling through song, as well as the opportunity to receive constructive critique on their submissions from successful musical theater songwriters. After online group coaching sessions, applicants will have the opportunity to revise and re-submit their compositions, which will be judged by a panel of leaders in the musical theater field—including NAMT members and Festival of New Musicals Alumni Writers, among others—who will select the Challenge’s winning writers/writing teams. Those writers will be invited to New York City in June 2024 to work with mentors in preparation for a concert of their songs. More details on how to participate will be available this Fall.
We invite you to check out the final songs from our previous years' winners from the 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2016 competitions.
The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge began as a pilot program in 2016 in three cities (Dallas, TX; Minneapolis, MN, Seattle, WA) before going national in 2017/2018.