New World School of the Arts high school senior Wooldjina Present, soprano in the music division, is among the 2020 recipients of the coveted Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award Scholarship. Along with the other winners, Wooldjina will receive $10,000 to help offset the cost of continuing her classical music studies at a high level and will have the opportunity to perform on From the Top’s national broadcasts. “On behalf of the music division, we are so proud of Wooldjina and wish her all the success afforded to her by receiving this award,” said Dr. Daniel Andai, Dean of Music at NWSA.
According to Dr. Jennifer Tipton, adjunct faculty at NWSA and Wooldjina’s private voice teacher, “Wooldjina is an incredibly talented, hardworking, and driven singer. Over the past four years, she has sought out opportunities that expand her musical and academic education. The Jack Kent Cooke Award will allow her to travel to audition for colleges across the country.”
“I am so honored to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award from From the Top,” said Wooldjina. “The financial assistance, leadership opportunities, and workshops and activities will undoubtably help shape my future in the most positive way possible. Thank you to everyone who supported me in making this dream become a reality.”
New World School of the Arts, South Florida’s premier arts conservatory located in downtown Miami, presents its annual signature showcase Rising Stars, a professionally staged, energy packed, one-of-a-kind performance. Presented by the extraordinary students of the NWSA high school and college programs, the showcase begins at the New World Gallery with a juried visual arts show featuring impressive student artworks. The exhibition, as diverse as the school population, includes painting, drawing, design, sculpture, digital media and installations. The evening continues just a few blocks away at the historic Olympia Theater with a pre-performance VIP Reception to welcome guests to this artistic landmark. Following the reception, the performance showcases dance, music, and theater excerpts from works performed during the school year.
The New World School of the Arts Music Division has engaged Italian composer and pianist Maestro Francesco Lotoro, to address the students of the NWSA Music Division during an upcoming Make Art Work (MAW) session. The dialogue will center around his life-changing findings to which he has dedicated the last three decades of his life – a collection of more than 8,000 music compositions conceived and written in concentration campus during the Holocaust and WW2. 
The New World School of the Arts college music theater students take to the stage this month with the Broadway musical PARADE, book by Alfred Uhry with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Under the direction of NWSA faculty member Sam Osheroff, the play will highlight the artistic talent of the College sophomore, junior and senior music theater students. “The themes of Parade are particularly resonant in our current American political climate. Racial and cultural prejudice, scapegoating of "outsiders" and economic resentment fomented by unscrupulous politicians and exacerbated by the press are as depressingly relevant today as they were in 1913,” explained Osheroff.
Distinguished violinist Robert McDuffie will perform as soloist with the New World School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, under the baton of Maestro Alfred Gershfeld.
New World School of the Arts has been named a National Magnet School of Excellence by Magnet Schools of America, the national association for magnet and theme-based schools. The premier arts conservatory in South Florida, located on the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, in downtown Miami, offers high school and college programs to students interested in careers in Dance, Music, Theater and Visual Arts. With admission based solely on talent and artistic abilities, NWSA offers the high school diploma as well as the BFA and BM degrees in collaboration with our educational partners MDCPS, MDC and UF.