Each month, the YoungArts Community Spotlight highlights upcoming events, projects and press from YoungArts past winners, guest artists and panelists.
In the News
- Lorna Courtney (2016 Voice) to star in Heathers the Musical Off-Broadway in New York City, featured in People Magazine
- Mara Jill Herman (2003 Theater) highlighted in Forbes article about accessibility in creative industries
- Ben Levi Ross (2016 Theater & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts) and Shaina Taub (2005 Theater) join Lincoln Center’s Ragtime
- Billy Porter (1987 Theater) to star in Cabaret on Broadway as the Emcee, highlighted in The New York Times
Kudos
- Michael Arden (2001 Theater, Voice, Writing & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts) won Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for Maybe Happy Ending
- Jolie Demesmin (2025 Voice) participating in the JAS Aspen Afro-Caribbean Big Band led by Etienne Charles
- Zina Ellis (2011 Theater) wrote, produced and acted in Divine Intervention, which is currently in the film festival circuit
- Sara Guo (2024 Dance) won the Second Place Prize at Cre8dance, Pittsburgh’s first choreographic competition, with her piece, Reemergence
- Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (2003 Writing) won Tony Award for Best Play for Purpose
- Jinan Laurentia Woo (2023 Classical Music) named the Stulberg International String Competition 2025 Gold Medalist and will be performing with Kalamazoo Symphony and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra in the coming season
- Tyreek McDole (2019 Voice) released debut album, Open Up Your Senses
- Andrew Nemr (1997 Dance) released new book, The Tap Dance Method
- Callie Chae Pyken (2024, 2025 Voice) won First Place for Southern California in the 2025 Schmidt National Vocal Competition at Sarasota Opera House
- Samantha Basir Tanner (2001 Theater) produced and acted in Sundance 2023 Feature Film, To Live and Die and Live, which had its theatrical release in May
- David Thomson (Guest Artist and Founder of Artist Resource Collective) received a 2025 Herb Alpert Award
- Elias Valle (2025 Classical Music) completing a fellowship at Yale School of Music’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival
- Evan Wang (2024, 2025 Writing) named 9th National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States
- Harris Bryan Yesenik (2023, 2024 Dance) chosen to participate in the Cultural Arts Program at the Innnopraktika School in St. Petersburg, Russia
On the Calendar
- Daveed Baptiste’s (2016 Photography, Visual Arts) fashion exhibition Soaring High on view at Materials for the Arts in Long Island City, NY through August 1
- Annie Blazejack (2005 Visual Arts & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts) featured in exhibition, A Tangled Plot, at the Vero Beach Museum of Art in Vero Beach, FL, opening on July 12
- Andre Deosaran (2019 Dance) performing with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA on July 11
- Shay Lari-Hosain (2016 Photography) debuting work in a group exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA, on view through August 18
- Timothy Hyunsoo Lee’s (2008 Visual Arts) exhibition, Patchwork of Elsewhere: Exploring the Poetics of Home, Displacement, and Belonging opening at the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, DC on July 3
- Tyreek McDole (2019 Voice) performing at Joe’s Pub In New York, NY on August 6
- Isabella Mellado (2014 Visual Arts) began their Fountainhead Residency and will have an open house in Miami, FL on July 17
- Mason Alexander Park (2013 Theater & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts) hosting The Pansy Crazy at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in New York, NY from June 26-28
Share Your News
If you are a YoungArts past winner, guest artist or panelist, fill out this form to be included in an upcoming spotlight.