NSA Awards
There are two unique awards available to students who make it to the Classical finals of the National Student Audition: Ginsburg Prize and the Roberta Stephen Scholarship.
The Roberta Stephen Scholarship
The Roberta M. Stephen Memorial Scholarship* is awarded at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Student Auditions (NSAs) for an outstanding performance of a Canadian art song in the college-age Classical categories. (*This is one scholarship prize that will be awarded to one individual who is chosen from across the six college-age classical categories.) We encourage teachers to add Canadian art songs to their students’ repertoire for NATS Region and Chapter auditions so they can be eligible to compete for the scholarship at the NSA Finals.
Award: $500 scholarship for outstanding Canadian art song performance.
Eligibility: A student who performs a Canadian art song in the College-Age Classical categories at the NATS National Student Auditions Finals.
The scholarship is facilitated by the Vancouver Chapter of NATS, which accepts donations to support the award.
NATS of Southern Alberta provided $5,000 CAD to seed the funds for the scholarship and commissioned the creation of a syllabus and resource center for Canadian music. These include song lists, recordings, and publishers. The syllabus facilitates selection of songs that are both age and pedagogically appropriate. The Vancouver Chapter of NATS is facilitating the awarding of this scholarship.
A fundraising campaign is underway to sustain this scholarship and expand its eligibility to other levels. It is hoped that a prize for Canadian music performance can ultimately be awarded at all levels of the NSAs. To contribute to this fund, Canadian citizens should visit the Vancouver Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. U.S. citizens can contribute using this form.
Named for the founder of the first Canadian NATS chapter, Stephen was part of a musical family from Southern Alberta. She held a master's degree in voice from the University of North Texas, and a bachelor's degree in composition from the University of Calgary. She received the highest award for her ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music and her associate's degree in music from the Western Board of Music (Conservatory Canada). Throughout her teaching career, Stephen’s students were consistent award winners at the local, provincial, and national levels and many former students teach and perform professionally.
As a composer, Stephen was best known for her vocal works for children, her song cycles, and her vocal chamber music for professionals. She was one of four composers chosen for the first National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Art Song Composition Award. Her music has been performed throughout North America, including New York City where “The Eye of the Seasons” for voice, piano and clarinet received critical acclaim. This work was commissioned by New Works Calgary for the opening of the Eckhardt Gramatté Hall in the Rozsa Centre at the University of Calgary. Many of her compositions are listed in the voice, piano and strings syllabi of major examining boards in Canada.
Stephen served as president and owner of Alberta Keys Music Publishing, president of New Works Calgary and the founder of Contemporary Showcase in Calgary.
In the early 1980s, a group of six voice teachers from Calgary, Alberta piled into a car, driving to Vancouver to take part in the NATS summer workshop. Stephen convinced this group to attend because of her previous positive experiences with NATS while completing her studies in Texas with John Large. Shortly thereafter, the first Canadian NATS chapter was founded in Calgary. This group further founded the first (Student NATS) SNATS group, originally intended to provide mentorship for students of NATS teachers.
Stephen was active as a teacher, composer, and publisher and passed away in July 2021, leaving a strong musical and pedagogical legacy. It is fitting to name this scholarship in her honor.
The Ginsburg Prize
The Gerald Ginsburg Repertoire Prize, in honor of composer Gerald Ginsburg, will award $1,000 to a student in the Post High School Classical categories who performs at least one of Ginsburg’s compositions in the YouTube, semifinal or final rounds in the NATS National Student Auditions. The award is made possible through a $25,000 contribution from the Ginsburg Foundation to endow the prize, ensuring its continuation for years to come.
An art song composed by Ginsberg fulfills the English Language Art Song requirement and/or fulfills the fourth additional selection requirement in the Upper NSA categories.
NATS members may access the Ginsberg’s scores in both PDF and Sibelius formats.
About Gerald M. Ginsburg (1932–2019)
Gerald M. Ginsburg (1932-2019) was a prolific composer who set hundreds of poems to music in his 50 years of artistic output. He was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 7, 1932. He earned a bachelor’s degree in composition from Oberlin and a master’s degree in composition the Manhattan School of Music. He studied piano with Rudolph Ganz, Jack Radunsky, Dora Zaslavsky, and composition with Roy Harris and Ludmilla Ulehla. His compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the New School, and the Kennedy Center, among many other venues.
Ginsburg’s signature contribution was a style of song he called “Theater Lieder,” which brought together the lyrical elements of musical theatre and classical art song structure. Following his debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1974, his career highlights included a premiere of song settings based on the work of Willa Cather at the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Spring Conference (Nebraska, 1979); original song settings of Paul Verlaine's poetry (Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 1998); An American à Paris (Merkin Concert Hall, 2000); a Heinrich Heine Tribute entitled Aus Schmerzen zu Lieder-From Sorrows to Songs (Weill Recital Hall, 2003), and many programs of original music with the composer at the piano at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Chelsea, NYC. In 2017, to mark his 85th birthday, Ginsburg’s life and music was celebrated in a concert The Music of Words, presented by Sounds of the City in Manhattan. An endlessly curious and evolving artist, Ginsburg’s primary aim was to celebrate the beauty of the world and bring enjoyment to his audiences.
Ginsburg passed away in New York City on April 12, 2019. In his final years, he envisioned The Herman, Rebecca, and Gerald Ginsburg Foundation (named after his parents) as a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting and disseminating the music to which he dedicated his life. An album of newly orchestrated songs was released on the PS Classics label in 2024 with the title Parting Gift: The Songs of Gerald Ginsburg.
For more information about the Herman, Rebecca, and Gerald Ginsburg Foundation, please visit ginsburgfoundation.org.
Ginsburg Repertoire Prize winner - Tiana Oberoi
She was recently one of 4 students selected to be a Glyndebourne mentee as part of the Pegasus Opera Company in the U.K., where she will be spending some time refining her skill later this summer.
Ginsburg Repertoire Database
This repertoire database offers 50 songs from Ginsburg's body of work, which includes around 150 songs in total. Additional songs will be added as they are engraved by the foundation until NATS houses the full collection. The Sibelius file format allows for easy transposition as needed. Performers can download the Sibelius score and use the program to transpose for their performance.
*If you use the music in a concert, please send a courtesy note to the Ginsburg Foundation using their contact form.*
NATS thanks the Ginsburg Foundation for their generous gift to endow the Gerald Ginsburg Repertoire Prize, as well as for providing permission to freely access his compositions. If you would like to make a voluntary donation to the Gerald Ginsburg Foundation, please contact the Foundation through their website.
