Kayla Cummings, a senior at
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, recently claimed second-place in the 2010 GRADY-RAYAM Prize in Sacred Music Competition.
Sponsored by Bright House Networks, the final round of judging for this year’s competition took place in the Anne MacGregor Jenkins Recital Hall on the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland. The winning singers impressed a three-person jury panel composed of Dianna Campbell (Seminole State College), Marcia Dawson and Kern Cox (Bethune-Cookman University).
Kayla performed two Negro spirituals, one assigned and one selected. As the second-place winner, Kayla received a $2,000 scholarship assistance grant and a $200 cash prize.
Named for deceased Roman Catholic Bishop, Thomas J. Grady and for Curtis Rayam Jr., voice teacher and renowned opera singer, the GRADY-RAYAM PRIZE has rapidly gained coveted status for music educators hoping to restore classical solo singing to the high school curriculum.
The "Negro Spiritual" Scholarship Foundation sponsors the vocal competition for sacred music. Organized in 1996 as a Florida nonprofit and certified 501(c) (3), the mission of the Foundation is to preserve and promote Negro spiritual songs and give scholarship help to college-bound minority youth.
To learn more about this scholarship, visit www.negrospiritual.org.
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