Submissions Now Open for the 2024-2025 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students!
From National Endowment for the Arts –
The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge, presented by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), is a unique educational and professional development opportunity for high school students all across the country to write and showcase musical compositions that could be part of a musical theater production. A submission is one song.
The Songwriting Challenge has an interactive submission process. All Draft 1 submissions will receive feedback from industry professionals. Students may revise their submission for the Draft 2 competitive round, where a group of Winning Songs will be selected, and the Winning Songwriters will be invited to attend Winners Weekend in NYC in June 2025!
Students are invited to participate in free, online educational events and workshops led by professional musical theatre writers, with a focus on the foundations of songwriting.
Previous Guest Artists for the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge have included Joey Contreras (In Pieces), Anna K. Jacobs (Teeth), Rob Rokicki (Broadway’s The Lightning Thief) and many more.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), established in Congress in 1965, is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States. The NEA’s primary activities include grantmaking to nonprofit arts organizations, public arts agencies and organizations, colleges and universities, federally recognized tribal communities or tribes, and individual writers and translators. Grant applications are reviewed by panels of arts experts and individuals from across the country. NEA funding is appropriated by Congress annually.
The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), founded in 1985, is a not-for-profit organization serving the musical theatre community. Its mission is to be a catalyst for nurturing musical theatre development, production, innovation and collaboration. Their 150 organizational members and 60 individual members, located throughout 31 states and eight countries abroad, are some of the leading producers of musical theatre in the world and include theatres, presenting organizations, higher education programs and individual producers. Among the 300 musicals launched by NAMT’s Annual Festival of New Musicals are Come From Away, Lempicka, The Drowsy Chaperone, Lizard Boy, Teeth, Gun & Powder, King of Pangea, Benny & Joon, Darling Grenadine, Ordinary Days, It Shoulda Been You and Thoroughly Modern Millie, among many others, representing 575 writers. This year, nearly 150 students from 33 states participated in the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with NAMT. Discover more at namt.org.
Learn more about our Fall Challenge EDU Events at namt.org/challenge.
Draft 1 Submissions are due January 31, 2025. Submit your song today!
