NJPAC’s SEVENTH ANNUAL

‘YOUNG ARTIST TALENT SEARCH’

Applications Available Online and by Calling 973-353-8009

Early Application Deadline: January 15, 2007

NEWARK, NJ  (December 5, 2006) – More than 700 applicants are expected for the seventh Annual New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s “Young Artist Talent Search” (YATS), a weekend for young tri-State performers to audition for spots in NJPAC’s arts training and scholarship programs. Audition applications may be obtained on line at www.njpac.org or by calling the Talent Search Hotline at 973-353-8009.  NJPAC’s Arts Education Department will offer workshops in February 2007 to help applicants prepare for their auditions.

Initiated in 2001, the weekend event, conducted by NJPAC’s Arts Education Department, provides artistically talented young performers opportunities to audition for approximately 300 openings in any of its five arts training programs.  Auditions will take place Saturday, March 24, and Sunday, March 25, 2007 at the Lucent Technologies Center for Arts Education (24 Rector Street) on the NJPAC site. Last year, over 500 young artists from every corner of New Jersey and the greater metropolitan area auditioned during YATS weekend. 

The Talent Search, made possible through the generosity of the Women’s Association of NJPAC and the Independence Community Foundation, gives students the opportunity to audition for The Star-Ledger Scholarship for the Performing Arts, NJPAC’s Wachovia Jazz for Teens, Jeffrey Carollo Music Scholarship, Summer Youth Performance Workshop, and Young Artist Institute. Preliminary auditions will also be held for the NJPAC/Westfield Young Artists’ Cooperative Theatre (WYACT) Summer Musical Program.  

“The Young Artist Talent Search provides the opportunity for young artists to audition to participate in some of the best artistic training programs in the New Jersey/New York metro-area,” said Desirée Urquhart, NJPAC’s Vice President for Arts Education. ”NJPAC will identify some of the finest of these young performers to hone their skills in the artistic disciplines of vocal music, instrumental music, theater and dance.”   

NJPAC’s Arts Education Department will offer free audition workshops to all YATS applicants.  Workshop instructors will offer advice on technique, presentation, material selection and other key audition elements at sessions scheduled Thursday, February 15, and Monday, February 26.  Students will receive more information about these workshops after their applications have been received for the Young Artist Talent Search.

Applications will be mailed to all New Jersey middle schools and high schools. A $15 application fee must accompany forms postmarked by January 15, 2007.  Final applications must be postmarked no later than February 23, 2007, and must include a $20 fee.   

Criteria for the programs are as follows: 

The Star-Ledger Scholarship for the Performing Arts is a tuition scholarship awarded to college-bound Newark high school seniors on the basis of artistic talent, academic potential and financial need. Three scholarships are given as financial assistance for a degree program at an accredited undergraduate institution. 

Three scholarships will be awarded to high school seniors who both reside and attend school in Newark.  One student is designated a “Scholar Intern” and receives a $10,000 scholarship each year for four years (for a total of $40,000) and an NJPAC internship. Two additional students, designated as “Scholars”, receive a $5,000 scholarship each per year for four years (for a total of $20,000 each). 

NJPAC’s Wachovia Jazz for Teens is open to middle and high school students, ages 13 to 18 (advanced 12-year-olds will also be considered).  Jazz for Teens was created nine years ago in collaboration with WBGO Jazz-88 Radio and is sponsored by Wachovia, the Surdna Foundation, and Advance Realty Foundation. 

Approximately 75 students will be selected for two semesters of eleven classes each, September through December and February through May. Students may apply for one or both semesters.  Classes include a combination of jam sessions, ensemble rehearsal and performance, classroom instruction and concert field trips under the direction of a faculty comprised of accomplished jazz artists, led by Music Director Don Braden.  The fall semester participants will experience a professional recording session, and the spring semester participants will perform in a public concert in NJPAC’s Victoria Theater. 

NJPAC’s Wachovia Jazz for Teens will offer instruction in saxophone, trumpet, trombone, drums, piano, bass, guitar and voice. 

The NJPAC/Jeffrey Carollo Music Scholarship at the Newark School of the Arts (NSA) is offered to students under the age of 18 who are accomplished musicians on string instruments, piano, clarinet, trumpet, guitar, drums or voice.  The scholarships provide 12 recipients with comprehensive training including private lessons, music theory, music history and ensembles. The scholarship recipients will perform at NJPAC in the spring of 2008. 

The NJPAC/Jeffrey Carollo Music Scholarship is made possible by the Amelior Foundation and MCJ Foundation, The Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, and the McCrane Foundation.  Administered by NJPAC’s Arts Education Department, the Scholarship was established in the fall of 1997 at the behest of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas and Judith Carollo of Toms River, in honor of their late son, Jeffrey, a gifted musician.  

Founded in 1968, the Newark School of the Arts is a community-based, student-centered organization committed to providing access to comprehensive arts education and performances. The School has developed outstanding leading artists, including Savion Glover, Keisha Pulliam (of The Cosby Show) and Derek Lee Ragin.

Summer Youth Performance Workshop is a five days a week, five-week program that provides budding young singers, actors and modern dancers, ages 13-18, a unique opportunity to study with top professionals.  Participants selected for the program will take classes in each of the three disciplines.  To round out the hands-on experience, the curriculum includes appearances by guest artists and field trips. 

Classes will be held July 2 through August 3, 2007.   Students will also perform in a showcase at NJPAC’s Victoria Theater on August 2, 2007.  Summer Youth Performance Workshop is sponsored by the Turrell Fund and Independence Community Foundation. 

NJPAC/WYACT Summer Musical Program is a collaborative effort to offer young people a first-hand opportunity to learn about musical theater by participating in a full-scale, professional-level musical production. 

The preliminary audition of cast and orchestra applicants is in preparation for open auditions, to be held in the 2007 spring season for the upcoming NJPAC/WYACT Summer Musical Program.  Students who attend the Talent Search may be called back in the final round of auditions in the spring.  The program is sponsored, in part, by Richmond County Savings Foundation and the Turrell Fund. 

WYACT, a well-known non-profit theater group, provides a high quality education to aspiring young thespians in musical theater, both in the performing and technical areas.  

Young Artist Institute offers talented young performers (ages 11 – 18) a place to study in an artistically rigorous yet nurturing environment, where they receive intensive technique training, personal assistance, encouragement, and helpful advice from exceptional faculty experienced in developing young artists’ potential.

Courses are offered in acting, vocal music, modern dance, and musical theater on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Each discipline meets eleven times during the course of one semester. Two semesters are offered: Fall and Spring. Students will achieve the sense of personal fulfillment that comes with membership in a select group striving for the highest level of artistic excellence.

Young Artist Institute is made possible by Bank of America. 

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NJPAC Arts Education programs are made possible by the generosity of:  The Prudential Foundation,  The Wallace Foundation, The Sagner Family Foundation, The Women's Association of New Jersey Performing Arts Center, AT&T, Richmond County Savings Foundation, Bank of America, The Star-Ledger/Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Verizon, The Victoria Foundation, The Turrell Fund, Wachovia, Allen and Joan Bildner and the Bildner Family Foundation, Leon and Toby Cooperman, Merck, PSE&G, Pfizer, The Arts Education Endowment Fund in Honor of Raymond G. Chambers, Surdna Foundation, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, David and Marian Rocker, Johnson and Johnson, The MCJ & Amelior Foundations, Sanofi-Aventis, and Albert and Katharine Merck.

Additional support is provided by: Roche, Independence Community Foundation, Kraft Foods, First American Title Insurance Company, The United Way of Essex and West Hudson, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, New York Times Company Foundation, Novartis, E. Franklin Robbins Charitable Trust, New Jersey Cultural Trust, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, National Endowment for the Arts, Starbucks Foundation, McCrane Foundation,  Advance Realty Foundation, Essex County Civic Committee, Inc., George A. Ohl, Jr. Foundation, and Andrew Vagelos.