The Lehigh Valley Music Awards (LVMA) are set to honor four local students who stand out for their exemplary performances both in school and onstage. Lehigh Valley Charter HS for the Arts’ Grace Rosario, Temple University’s Max Hostage, Liberty HS’s Mariah Nagle and Pen Argyl HS’s Karin Guide have been named the recipients of this year’s Youth Education Scholarship Awards.

Grace Rosario is a senior viola major at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, where she leads the viola section of orchestra, string ensemble and pit orchestra. She serves as vice president of her school’s chapter of the Tri-M Music Honors Society, as well as secretary of the instrumental club. She also leads the viola section of the Young People’s Philharmonic Orchestra (YPP) and is the violist of the associated quartet. Additionally, Rosario has participated in PMEA Orchestra for the past three years, her highest placement being at PMEA State Orchestra last year as sixth chair. She plans to pursue a career in music and continue her education in the fall of 2019.

Musikfest alumnus Max Hostage first became interested in music at age 11 after finding his brother’s blue lacquered Stratocaster guitar. His brother gifted it to him, setting him on a path of musical pursuits which started at The Lesson Center and later led to live performances at Musikfest. He intends to major in entrepreneurship and minor in music at Temple University, while continuing to study jazz music and maintain creative projects on the side.

A senior at Liberty HS, Mariah Nagle has performed in eight Liberty productions, most notably as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and will lead as Belle in Beauty and the Beast this spring. She has also performed in several community theater productions across the Lehigh Valley, including Phillipsburg Area Summer Youth Theater’s Newsies, in which she starred as Katherine Plumber. Nagle has been studying voice for four years, and studied theater at Pennsylvania Youth Theatre. She plans to continue her education in musical theater throughout college.

Karin Guide has been deeply involved with music since childhood. In elementary school she started singing in choir and playing the violin, and she later took up the tenor saxophone and became a percussionist in Pen Argyl HS’s marching band. Her repertoire also includes lead alto saxophone and featured vocalist in the jazz band, and contra-alto clarinet, which she plays in concert band. She has represented Pen Argyl at county chorus for four years and at county band for three years. This year, she will be a part of the PMEA District 10 Chorus and Band. Guide plans to pursue music education in college.

Started in 1999 by the Greater Lehigh Valley Music Association (GLVMA), the Lehigh Valley Music Awards are designed to honor and celebrate the musicians and music related businesses of the Greater Lehigh Valley. The LVMAs, now in their 20th year, are a partnership between the Greater Lehigh Valley Music Association and ArtsQuest. For more information on the LVMAs, visit www.lehighvalleymusicawards.org.

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