Beach Blanket Babylon Announces $10,000 Arts Scholarship Finalists

Jo Schuman Silver, producer of Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon, announced today the selection of nine Bay Area finalists for the Steve Silver Foundation and Beach Blanket Babylon "Scholarship for the Arts." One winner in each category will be presented with a check for $10,000 towards their college education. The nine high school seniors who will perform live on Monday, June 4th are:

Acting

JERRILEE GEIST – Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School, Novato

AUGUST GRAHN – Millennium High School, Piedmont

NICOLAS CHUBA – Santa Rosa High School, Santa Rosa

Dancing

MARIKO ISHIKAWA – Aragon High School, San Mateo

NAOMI LAM – Irvington High School, Fremont

ABBY CHEN – Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, San Francisco

Singing

JAKE BRINSKELE – Sonoma Academy, Santa Rosa

KELSEY LAURITANO – Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, San Francisco

KELSEY TARANTINO – Santa Rosa High School, Santa Rosa

Even after ten years of picking finalists for the scholarship competition, choosing only nine students was just as difficult as years past," said Schuman Silver. ""Once again, the caliber of talent we received this year was outstanding!"

Master of Ceremonies for the evening is Star 101.3's Don Bleu. The celebrity panel of judges scheduled to appear include: San Francisco Opera's Zheng Cao, Composer Gordon Getty, KMEL's Chuy Gomez, entertainer M.C. Hammer, famed opera composer Jake Heggie, California Shakespeare Theater's Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone, American Conservatory Theater's Artistic Director Carey Perloff, ABC7's Don Sanchez, Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Artistic Director Tony Taccone,ODC's Artistic Director Brenda Way, and KRON4/KCBS Radio's Jan Wahl and American jazz and cabaret singer Paula West.

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