CAA announces 2025 Overture Awards Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

 $61,000 Awarded for Excellence in the Arts
Arts Educator Award Recipient Also Announced
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[CINCINNATI, OH] – The Cincinnati Arts Association is pleased to announce the winners of its Overture Awards Competition, held on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater, and the recipient of its Arts Educator Award for Excellence in Arts Instruction. The competition awarded $4,000 to six area students for education and training, $2,000 each to the 18 runners-up, and $1,000 to the Arts Educator Award recipient.
 
The Overture Awards recognizes, encourages, and rewards excellence in the arts among Tri-state students in grades 9-12 and is the area’s largest solo arts competition. Students are nominated by their schools and/or private studios to compete in one of six disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, and Vocal Music. There are three levels of competition: Regional, Semi-Final, and Final.
 
The Arts Educator Award promotes and rewards excellence in arts instruction throughout Greater Cincinnati. An educator who teaches any of the following arts disciplines may be nominated: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, and Vocal Music. A nominee may be a high school arts specialist, teaching artist working with high school students, or an arts professional or educator providing private lessons or instruction. Nominations are submitted by students between the ages of 14-19 who are currently enrolled in high school and competing in that year’s Overture Awards.
 
The Overture Awards Regional Competitions were held virtually in January 2025. The top thirty percent of competitors in each discipline advanced to the Semi-Finals, which were held at the Aronoff Center from February 12-15, 2025.
 
Now in its twenty-ninth year, the Overture Awards was launched in 1996 by the Cinergy Foundation (now Duke Energy) and Leadership Cincinnati (a program of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber). The Overture Awards is funded and administered by the Cincinnati Arts Association and relies on hundreds of volunteers from the community who help raise funds, adjudicate, manage the competitions, and nurture the program.