Emerging Young Artist Awards
Description of Award
Launched in 2000, the Emerging Young Artist Awards (EYAA) enabled talented young Californians to pursue their dreams of becoming professional artists through financial support. Funded by the Herb Alpert Foundation, the EYAA opened doors by providing up to $5,000 per year for four years ($20,000) to talented young artists while enrolled in a college/university degree program or professional training program in their artistic discipline.
This awards program was discontinued after 2006. Although no new awards are planned, the Alliance is fulfilling its scholarship commitment to all previous award winners. Learn more about these inspiring young artists in their profiles below.
Past Award Winners
| 2006 | |
| Dance | |
Norbert De La Cruz III “I have chosen to study the field of dance because it has allowed me to express my feelings as a young thriving teenager…Dance has helped me gain confidence in myself and has fulfilled my happiness through art.” |
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| Music | |
Sean Chen “One of the reasons why I am a musician is that music creates a whole new world. Pieces tell a story of a wonderful place, of spirits, emotion, conflict, tension, love, dissonance, and harmony…As a performer, my duty is to transmit what I can to the people. It is the sharing of these stories that makes performing so enjoyable.” |
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| Theatre | |
Jason Greene “…I have devoted myself to a cultural mission, one that elevates and entertains the public. It is my objective while I am onstage to use my creative concentration in the deepest meaning. I feel that the greatest loss in society is that of imagination, children are denied elements of creativity...” |
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| Visual Arts | |
Ara Dona Sukiassyan “…I love to try and capture people and go beyond their expressions and give a twist to them, showing their inner most thoughts so you feel that same feeling, movement, or noise. My work is capturing the person and then being able to get lost in my painting and look at it for a long time.” |
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| 2005 | |
| Dance | |
Anila Mazhary “Our human hearts, our batteries, seem so depleted and drained these days. So what could be more important than to be an artist, to be a source of inspiration and regeneration for human kind?” |
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| Music | |
Sean Lee “What makes great music great art is the way it communicates to people. Music can touch a person’s heart, heal someone, tell a story, and be a source of escape…It is my dream and my goal as a musician to be able to communicate to audiences as an artist…” |
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| Theatre | |
Maya Erskine “…I started to discover that theater was much more rewarding when I acted to discover, learn and feel, than when I acted for approval. I went from thinking I knew all about acting to being humbled by the realization that I had a lot to learn.. I now know that I want to pursue acting because there is no other career for me.” |
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| Visual Arts | |
Alyson Highsmith “…I feel that a college education would not only put me in a community of artists, it would help me learn the ropes of the art business, brutal self-discipline and where I stand. Also, why I am standing and not running.” |
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2004 This highly competitive scholarship drew hundreds of applicants in the areas of dance, music, theatre and visual arts. One winner was selected from each of the four artistic disciplines to receive up to $20,000 while enrolled in a degree or professional training program. This unique, multi-year scholarship provides funding to award recipients for four years. The other finalists in each discipline received a one-time cash award of $1,000 each. |
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| Dance | |
| Taelor Cyrus Los Angeles, Marlborough School |
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| Music | |
| Sharon Park Castaic, Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences |
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| Theatre | |
| Rafael Goldstein Altadena, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts |
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| Visual Arts | |
| Adeetje Bouma Oak View, Ventura Senior High School |
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| 2003 The California Alliance for Arts Education is pleased to announce the results of the Emerging Young Artist Awards 2003. Each winner will receive up to $20,000 over four years. |
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| Dance | |
| Amelia Uzategui Bonilla Burbank, Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, plans to attend The Juilliard School |
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| Music | |
| Xi Bei Jia Alhambra, New Roads School in Santa Monica, plans to attend New England Conservatory |
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| Theatre | |
| Laura Hall Placerville, El Dorado High School in Placerville plans to attend University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music |
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| Visual Arts | |
| Jose Moreno Woodland, Woodland High School, plans to attend California College of Arts & Crafts |
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| Additional awardees at the $1,000 level | |
| Dance | Reid Colton, Glendale, Idyllwild Academy, plans to attend Boston Conservatory and National Ballet School Canada Maya Johnson, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, plans to attend University of the Arts, Philadelphia |
| Music | Blake Hanna, Simi Valley, Royal High School, plans to attend California State University, Northridge Corinn Kopczynski, Glendale, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, plans to attend University of California, Los Angeles |
| Theatre | Jackson Tobiska, Santa Ana, Orange County High School of the Arts, plans to attend Carnegie Mellon University Bradford Culver, La Canada, La Canada High School, plans to attend California Institute of the Arts |
| Visual Arts | Paz Winshtein , Agoura Hills, Agoura Hills High School, plans to attend Laguna College of Art & Design Nicole Neff, Monrovia, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, plans to attend Otis College of Art & Design The California Alliance for Arts Education receives hundreds of applications each year for this prestigious award. Candidates from throughout California are adjudicated by a community of professional artists and educators through three increasingly rigorous rounds of competition. The artistry of these fine young students is a tribute to their teachers and their high school programs, who are striving to provide the very best in arts education for all students. The Emerging Young Artist Award funded through the generous support of the Herb Alpert Foundation, Carol and Dom DeLuise and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. |
| 2002 | |
| Dance | |
The dance scholarship was awarded to Joseph M. Medeiros from Johansen High School in Modesto. Joseph attends the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in the Musical Theatre Department. The two runners up in Dance presented ballet and modern dance solos. They were Esther Choi of the Orange County High School of the Arts and Michal Humer of Oak Park High School |
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| Music | |
| The music scholarship was awarded to Joseph Lee of Cupertino, a senior from Monta Vista High School. Joseph attends the Juilliard School of Music in New York City as a cello major. The runners up in Music were opera singer Chelsea Basler of Valhalla High School and violinist Jennifer Lee of Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences. |
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| Theatre | |
| The theatre scholarship was awarded to Titania Kumeh of Buena Park, a senior from Sunny Hills High School. Titania attends New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Runners up in Theatre were Benjamin Wills of Highland High School in Palmdale and Raffi Barsoumian of John Marshall Secondary School in Pasadena. |
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| Visual Arts | |
| The Visual Arts scholarship was awarded to Karina Puente of Buellton, a senior from Santa Ynez Valley Union High School. Karina attends the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Runners up in Visual Arts were Sarah Freeman of ThousandOaks High School and Jennifer Yuen of School of the Arts, San Francisco. |
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| 2001 The 2001 Emerging Young Artist Awards program began in March 2001 with 730 young artists participating in the preliminary level of adjudication. After two months of intensive adjudication by several panels of distinguished arts professionals, twelve exceptionally talented young artists were selected to compete at the EYAA finals on April 29th at Occidental College in Los Angeles. It was a difficult decision, but out of those twelve finalists, four Emerging Young Artists were chosen to receive the top awards. These young people are ambitious, passionate and exceptionally talented. It is with great pleasure that we introduce the Emerging Young Artists 2001..... |
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| Cyrian Reed, James Luster, Kristina Goettler and Jessica Adcock | |
| Music | Kristina Goettler, La Mesa, Helix Charter High School Kristina Goettler started playing music when shewas five-years-old. Kristina asserts that to become a world-class oboist you "need to keep working hard and believe that you can do it". Though Kristina once dreamed of becoming a surgeon, her high school experiences with honor bands and local orchestras like the San Diego Youth Symphony made her realize that she can never live without being surrounded by music. She is attending the Oberlin School of Music in Ohio. |
| Theatre | James Luster, Carlsbad, Coronado School of the Arts James Luster is attending Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts this fall. James is a multi-faceted and articulate young actor who loves to write his own work and perform comedy. Believing that theatre should inform as well as entertain, James aspires for a career as a stand-up comedian with a powerful message to deliver. On May 12, James was honored at the Carlsbad Art Associates annual meeting. |
| Dance | Cyrian Reed, Riverside, Rubidoux High School Cyrian Reed is a vivacious dancer with big dreams to identify and nurture the talent of young dancers like herself who do not have the personal resources to pursue expensive dance training. Cyrian is attending California State University in Long Beach. |
| Visual Arts | Jessica Adcock, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara High School "Vibrant, gestural renderings of figures", is how Jessica Adcock describes her diverse repertoire of talent, including oil painting, charcoal drawings, watercolor and ceramic sculpture. Jessica is pursuing an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at UC Santa Cruz. |
2000 Winners of the Emerging Young Artist Awards 2000 are Shannon MacMillan, El Modena High School, Anaheim, Theatre; Jamie Dee, Foothill High School, Orange, Dance; Evan Brummel, Palm Desert High School, La Quinta, Music; and Patty Wu, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Diamond Bar, Visual Arts; pictured with Sally Kirkland, Mistress of Ceremonies. Distribution of applications for CAAE Emerging Young Artist Awards 2001 will begin in late November. Applications are due March 1, 2001. An application form will be available for download from this website after October 1, 2000.
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