Los Angeles - The Music Center of Los Angeles County honored 12 talented performing artists and 4 top visual artists at the 19th annual Music Center Spotlight Awards on Saturday, April 14. The high school student finalists in each category received cash scholarships, with $6,000 for first place and $3,000 for the runner-up.

The sold-out event, hosted by Tony and Emmy-Award winning actor John Lithgow, was followed by a gala dinner that raised funds to support the nationally acclaimed arts education and recognition program. This year nearly 2,000 students participated in the Spotlight program and over $100,000 was awarded to finalists, semi-finalists and participants who received honorable mentions.

Michael Tyus, an 11th grader at Temple City High School, received first place in the non-classical dance award and runner-up was Paula vanOppen, an 11th grader at Brea Olinda High School. 11th grader Kristopher Nobles from Hamilton Senior High School received first place in the ballet category and runner-up was Alexandria Mitchell, an 11th grader at Laurel Springs Academy.

First place in the classical instrumental category was violinist Jennifer Liu, a 9th grader at Oak Park High School, and flutist Mark Teplitsky, a 10th grader at Torrey Pines High School was the runner-up. In the jazz instrumental category, drummer Jonathan Pinson, a 12th grader at Hamilton High School received first place. The runner-up was flutist Sarah Johnson, a 12th grader at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

First place in the non-classical voice category was 9th grader Teira Church from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, while 11th grader Olivia Hernandez from Fullerton Union High School was runner-up. In the classical voice category, Julia Metzler, a 12th grader from Glendale received first place and Anna Schubert, a 12th grader at Fullerton Union High School was runner-up.

In the two-dimensional art category Tiana Tucker of Los Angeles County High School for the Arts received first place and Aanchal Anand of South Pasadena High School received second place. In the photography category Ian Cervantes of John Burroughs High School in Burbank received first place and Eunice Lau of Beckman High School in Irvine received second place.

The evening's celebrity judges were Peggy Hickey, Julie McDonald and Keith Young for the Non-Classical Dance category; Dr. JB Dyas, Kevin Eubanks and Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy for the Jazz Instrumental Category; Glenn Edgerton, Jeffrey Edwards, and Christopher Stowell for the Ballet Category; Sam Harris, DeLee Lively and Charlayne Woodard for the Non-Classical Voice category; Susan Graham, Suzanna Guzmán and Cynthia Munzer for the Classical Voice Category; Sean Newhouse, Delores Stevens and Timothy Durkovic for the Classical Instrumental Category.

The Music Center Spotlight Awards program was established in 1988 and is one of the nation's most acclaimed performing and visual arts educational programs for teens. The program has launched numerous professional careers-fourteen finalists are Presidential Scholars and many have joined or performed with professional companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

Fredric M. Roberts is founding chairman of the Music Center Spotlight Awards; Dennis Beck is chairman and Walter Grauman creator/executive producer. The program is a project of the Fraternity of Friends.

Bank of America is the Principal Sponsor of the Music Center Spotlight Awards. The program is also supported by Helen and Peter Bing, HUB International/Kagan-Kozberg, Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation, Walter Lantz Foundation, California Community Foundation, Lee Graff Foundation, Dorothy B. Chandler Program Fund, Entravision Communications Corporation, American Honda Motor Co., Inc, Eloise C. Goodhew Barnett, The Carsey Family Foundation, James B. Pendleton Foundation, The Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation, The Lucille Ellis Simon Foundation, Gladys Turk Foundation, Harmon Pro Group/JBL Professional, E! Entertainment, and Occidental Petroleum.

For more information about the Music Center Spotlight Awards program, call 213-972-3300 or visit musiccenter.org.