Songwriting Challenge: Tips and Tricks with composer Sam Willmott

2020 Deadline: March 6, 2020

Composer Sam Willmott shares some tips and tricks for aspiring songwriters. Watch as he shares his approach to making the best composition when submitting to the Songwriting Challenge. The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts partnering with the American Theatre Wing and in collaboration with Playbill, Inc. and Disney Theatrical Productions. The Songwriting Challenge is a national competition for high school students who have a passion for writing songs that could be part of a musical theater production. Six finalists will be chosen in February 2018 for a trip to New York City, and then in April will participate in an intense weekend of workshops with mentorship opportunities with professional songwriters and musicians and will have the opportunity for their original song to be performed by those musicians.

In addition to the opportunity for one-on-one mentoring while in New York City, Samuel French, the world's leading publisher and licensor of plays and musicals, will publish the six finalists’ songs in a collection book that will be available on their website. The National Champion will be awarded a scholarship of $25,000.

Share your favorite original musical theatre songs using #IWriteMusicals

Sam Willmott is a New York City-based musical theater composer, lyricist and bookwriter. He is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award, the Kleban Prize for Most Promising Musical Theatre Lyricist, a Jonathan Larson Grant, the ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award for Lyrics, and the Fred Ebb Award.