Florencia Cuenca, Amina Faye, and More Join NAMT's CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Concert

The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, will return to the stage with CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!, a concert celebrating the winning songs by high school songwriters from across the country. Musical theater fans will have the chance to see these fully orchestrated arrangements performed by Broadway artists such as Florencia Cuenca, Amina Faye, Claire Kwon, Carson Stewart and more on June 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET at New World Stages in New York City. The concert will also be available through a livestream at arts.gov/songwriting and namt.org/challenge.

The Winning Student Songwriters

The 2024-2025 winners represent six states and were selected by a panel of leaders in the musical theater field from 90 submissions: (grades and schools are as of the 2024-2025 school year)

Judah Brown, an 11th grade student at Owasso Preparatory Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Gwendellyn Doerfler, a 12th grade student at Dewitt High School in Dewitt, Michigan

Sydney Gray, a 12th grade student at Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Alabama

Leela Kumar, an 11th grade student at Howell High School in Marlboro, New Jersey

Ali Lewis, a 12th grade student at Mercy McAuley High School in Cincinnati, Ohio

Sadie Shapiro, a 12th grade student at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Scotch Plains, New Jersey

Elaina Stuppler, an 11th grade student at Lakeridge High School in Lake Grove, Oregon

Karsten Wallace, an 11th grade student at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama

Excerpts of the winning song submissions and more information about the winners are available at namt.org. Winning students will come to New York City this weekend where they will work with mentors and musicians to hone their orchestrations while learning about process, technique and production. The 2025 Music Team includes Music Supervisor Dylan Glatthorn, Music Director Anessa Marie Scolpini, and mentors Andrea Daly, Timothy Huang and Jaime Lozano. The winning songs will be orchestrated by Faye Chiao, Teresa Lotz and Anessa Marie Scolpini. The concert casting director is Michael Cassara, CSA. 

The final compositions will be performed by Broadway artists for CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!, a concert on Monday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m. ET, available to watch live and on-demand at arts.gov/songwriting and namt.org/challenge. In addition, each winning student will receive a scholarship of $2,500, provided by the NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation.

Broadway Stars Perform Winning Songs

At the June 16 concert, each student songwriter and their mentor will premiere the winning songs, which will then be performed by a cast featuring:

Gabi Carrubba (Dear Evan Hansen)

Florencia Cuenca (Real Women Have Curves)

Michelle Dowdy (Hairspray)

Amina Faye (SIX The Musical, Nat’l Tour)

Claire Kwon (Maybe Happy Ending)

Carson Stewart (The Notebook)

Luke Islam (America’s Got Talent)