Whittenberg Scholarship Winners Announced

 

                     Aqura Lacey                     Alan Ohkubo

“Blown away” and “gifted” were terms heard often from the four judges – Bruce Simpson, Artistic Director, Louisville Ballet; Jason Seber, Artistic Director, Louisville Youth Orchestra; Terri Foster, Managing/Artistic Director of the Louisville Youth Choir; and Zan Sawyer-Dailey, Associate Director, Actors Theatre of Louisville – who auditioned twelve committed and talented students from the Greater Louisville area for the Fund for the Arts William Tolbert Whittenberg Scholarship for Excellence recently. 

Though competition was intense, a winner and runner-up were selected in a rare and privileged look into the future of the performing arts in Louisville.  Vocal, instrumental, dance, and theatre were well represented, with dancer Aqura Lacey of Shively and cellist Alan Ohkubo of the Middletown area winning first and second place, respectively. 

It was a cheerful moment for the Fund for the Arts when the judges chose Lacey as the first prize winner of a $4,000 Whittenberg scholarship, as she first began her artistic training at the Louisville Central Community Center (LCCC).  LCCC is one of  hundreds of organizations that have received Community Arts Grants from the Fund over the years.

Lacey stated in her application that, “I will be that dancer who always comes an hour early and leaves an hour late because I love every extra second that I can get in the studio...”  Her passion has been evident in both her in-school performances at the Jefferson County Public School’s Youth Performing Arts High School (YPAS) -- from which she graduates Memorial Day weekend -- and in her after-school training with the Louisville Ballet School’s Youth Ensemble, a Fund for the Arts member group. 

Both an award-winning dancer and musician, as well as a gifted choreographer, honor student, and volunteer for community dance programs, Lacey will use her Whittenberg Scholarship to help cover her B.F.A. degree expenses at Fordham University in New York, through which she will continue training and dancing with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, an elite dance school where Lacey has trained and interned for two previous summers.  Lacey also was recently awarded a $7,000 Gheens Great Expectations Scholarship to pursue her studies. (The Gheens Great Expectations Project is a collaboration between the Fund for the Arts and The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts.) 

Ohkubo was the runner-up for a Whittenberg Scholarship – receiving $1,000.  The principal cellist for both the Louisville Youth Orchestra, a Fund for the Arts member group, and the Jefferson County Public Schools Youth Performing Arts School’s Philharmonia, YPAS’s top orchestra, Alan also is studying with world-renown cellist and teacher Jason Starker at Indiana University, where Alan hopes to attend college and obtain a bachelor’s in music performance.

The other students selected as audition finalists and their disciplines were: Adam Brown, theatre; Victoria Bates, harp; Helen Bush, musical theatre; Yunina Barbour-Payne, theatre; Madalyn Brinkhaus, dance; Sebastian Buhts, percussion; Mary Buckner, vocalist; Tyler Curth, viola/cello; Jenifer Morgan, theatre; and Caroline Whetzel, theatre. 

The William Tolbert Whittenberg Scholarship for Excellence, a program of the Fund for the Arts, is made possible through the generosity of Joan Whittenberg, who endowed the scholarship program in 1987 in memory of her son, William Tolbert Whittenberg, to enable gifted students with limited financial support to pursue advanced study in the performing arts.   The amount of the award is between $2,000 and $5,000 for the first place winner with the award being for one year only.  Recipients are not eligible to apply in subsequent years.

Applicants completed an on-line form, including two letters of recommendation and an essay stating career goals, scholarship need, and intended use of funds.  Applicants were between the ages of 16 and 20, residents of the Kentuckiana area, and planned to pursue a professional career in the performing arts.  The Whittenberg Scholarship funds are used solely for advanced professional training in the performing arts and may be used towards such expenses as tuition, apprenticeship with a coach or company, seminars, workshops, or advanced study.  The scholarship may NOT be used for the purchase of instruments or equipment.  Funds will not be awarded if such award will reduce or replace other financial support available to the applicant.