New World School of the Arts shines the spotlight on more than 200 students as the Broadway-style production, RISING STARS, returns to Miami-Dade County Auditorium to present the popular signature showcase. The professionally staged, energy packed, one-of-a-kind show will offer works presented thus far this academic year by NWSA high school and college students. A highlight of the evening each year is the NWSA Rising Stars Alumni Awards, which recognizes a graduate who is successfully contributing to their art form. This year, the honor will be presented to nationally acclaimed, award-winning musician, Alex Lacamoire, who will greet the audience on stage while offering his acceptance speech.
Beginning with the Rising Stars Exhibition, guests are invited to enjoy an evening of all things visual art during the Opening Reception, where participating students, and faculty will be on site to discuss the artworks carefully curated for the annual exhibition. An invaluable show for the community, the show consists of painting, drawing, photography, visual technology, sculpture, graphic design, and installations – allowing visitors to enjoy a wealth of artistic exploration by young rising artists. For New World School of the Arts, “the Rising Stars Exhibition is a great opportunity for students and faculty to highlight the best of the best while celebrating those students that have gone the extra mile with their practice and artistic research. The exhibition also allows them to learn about how their work needs to be presented in a gallery context – an experience similar to what artist go through while applying for exhibitions and other opportunities,” explained O. Gustavo Plascencia, Dean of Visual Arts at New World School of the Arts.
The Rising Stars Performance continues at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium under the direction of NWSA dean of theater Alan Patrick Kenny. The performing arts presentation is a professionally staged showcase highlighting the work presented thus far this academic year by both the high school and the college students, with carefully selected excerpts from dance, music, and theatre performances. From the dance division, guests will be treated to works by outstanding professional choreographers including Martha Graham’s powerful work, Prelude to Action, which was staged for the young dancers by NWSA dance alumna, Mariya Dashkina Maddux, a former Principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, and rehearsed by NWSA Professor Peter London, also a former Principal dancer with the Graham Company. The program will also feature an excerpt of Michelle Manzanales’ Paloma Querida, set to the music of Chavela Vargas among others. Manzanales is a sought-after choreographer who is also the Director of Ballet Hispanico’s School of Dance. Dance faculty Jeffrey Lloyd Smith‘s athletic work, against the current, features a cast of NWSA college dancers, and Gentry Isaiah George, also an NWSA alumnus and faculty member, will present excerpts from his work, Game of Love, set to the classic music of Nat King Cole.
Under the baton of Dr. Hyunjee Chung, the music division will present Allegro-Presto from Symphony No. 5, one of Beethoven’s most famous works written between 1804 and 1808. The Fifth Symphony premiered in Vienna in 1808 and it is one of the best-known compositions in classical music and one of the most frequently played symphonies. With a unique transition building from the subtle quietness of the third movement of this famous composition, to the triumphant chords that mark the beginning of the finale, this supercharged moment will certainly be grand for this year’s Rising Stars audience. Presented by the NWSA Jazz Ensemble under the direction of NWSA faculty Jim Gasior, guests will enjoy the Grammy Award-winning song, First Circle, by Pat Metheny. Jazz aficionados are sure to recognize this piece has begun because the transition to played music are the precision rhythms played by the ensemble’s clapping of hands!! Sprinkled with brief student-produced monologues throughout the evening, the theater division will captivate the audience with excerpts from award-winning productions including The Book of Will and Sweat. Under the direction of NWSA faculty Silas Hoover, Lauren Gunderson’s life-affirming play, The Book of Will, a comedy of sorts, brings forth characters who work to safeguard Shakespeare’s work and rescue it for posterity three years after his death and create a little book we call the First Folio. Presented by the NWSA college theater students and directed by NWSA professor James Randolph, Sweat portrays a meeting between a parole officer and two ex-convicts, and three women who were childhood friends and had worked in the same factory in Reading, Pennsylvania. Sweat was first performed Off-Broadway in 2016 and on Broadway just a year later. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2017 as well as an Obie Award. It also received three Tony Award nominations and a Drama Desk Award nomination.
The NWSA Rising Stars Alumnus Award, presented on stage during the Rising Stars Performance each year to a high school or college graduate from New World School of the Arts who is successfully contributing to their art form, will be presented to award-winning musician Alex Lacamoire, a 1992 high school graduate of the MWSA music division. Alex is a Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Olivier Award-winning orchestrator, music director, arranger, and composer. He is best known for his work on Broadway’s critically acclaimed shows Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and In The Heights and FX’s mini-series “Fosse/Verdon.” Alex currently serves as the Music Supervisor and Conductor for the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (starring Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster), which features Jonathan Tunick’s original orchestrations played by a 26-piece orchestra. Lacamoire’s other credits as music director, arranger, and/or orchestrator include: The Wrong Man (Off-Broadway), Bring It On, 9 to 5 (Drama Desk and Grammy nominations), Wicked, Bat Boy and Godspell (2001 National Tour). He also served as the Executive Music Producer for many films including The Greatest Showman, In The Heights, VIVO, Dear Evan Hansen, and Tick, Tick…Boom! Lacamoire is the winner of three Tony Awards for Best Orchestrations, four Grammy Awards (three for Best Musical Theater Album and one for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media), three Oliver Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music, and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction on “Fosse/Verdon.” In 2019, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from his alma mater, Berklee College Of Music. He was also the recipient of a first-of-its-kind Kennedy Center Honors for his contribution to Hamilton. Alex and the Hamilton creative team were honored as the “trailblazing creators of a transformative work that defies category” — a distinction never awarded by the arts institution. In 2023, he was named an Official Yamaha Artist. Lacamoire currently resides in New York.
A Florida center of excellence in the visual and performing arts, New World School of the Arts is an educational partnership of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College, and University of Florida. NWSA provides a comprehensive program of artistic, creative, and academic development through a curriculum that reflects our community and the rich multicultural state of Florida. Through our partners NWSA confers the high school diploma, Associate of Arts degree, and Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Music college degrees in programs accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance, Music, Theatre and Art & Design. NWSA’s rigorous eight-year curriculum and conservatory-style teaching has empowered students in our community and our nation to become leaders in the arts for more three decades.
Information about New World School of the Arts at 305-237-3135 or nwsa.mdc.edu.
RISING STARS EXHIBITION
Opening Reception
March 1; 5-8PM
New World Gallery
25 NE 2 Street, Miami
Free and open to the public
RISING STARS PERFORMANCE
March 8; 7:30PM
Miami-Dade County Auditorium
2901 West Flagler, Miami 33125
General admission $15 – $30
RISING STARS PERFORMANCE WITH VIP RECEPTION
March 8; 6PM
Miami-Dade County Auditorium
2901 West Flagler, Miami 33125
Information at 305-237-3502
General admission $150 – $250