Edison Students Named 2025 YoungArts Award Winners

EDISON, NJ — Two students from J.P. Stevens High School have been named 2025 YoungArts Award winners.

Adrian Chirnoaga won the classical music category and Emily Hsu was named winner with distinction in the writing/spoken word category.

Hsu is among 169 students named winners with distinction. These students are invited to participate in National YoungArts Week, to be held Jan. 5-12, 2025, in Miami.

During the week, they will have opportunities to share their work, which is further evaluated for cash awards of up to $10,000; experience interdisciplinary classes and workshops; and receive mentorship from leading artists in their fields.

The 2025 winners with distinction will have the chance to learn from notable artists such as ballerina Misty Copeland, dance artists Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Reiner, actress Lorna Courtney, multidisciplinary artist Brian Ellison, and National Bestselling Author and Filmmaker Abigail Hing Wen.

Winners with distinction are also eligible to be nominated to become U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

YoungArts award winners are selected through a highly competitive application, which is reviewed by panels of esteemed, discipline-specific artists in a rigorous adjudication process.

The 2025 YoungArts award winners join a distinguished community of artists who are offered creative and professional development support throughout their careers.

“We’re thrilled to award our largest-ever cohort of artists, selected from a record-breaking number of applications this year,” YoungArts President & CEO Clive Chang said.

“We hope this recognition provides these young people with the encouragement to keep pursuing their artistry, and the assurance that YoungArts will be there as a source of support and community for the rest of their lives.”

This year, winners were selected from nearly 11,000 applications across 10 artistic disciplines – classical music, dance, design, film, jazz, photography, theater, visual arts, voice and writing.

Each award winner will receive a monetary award of $250.

For the duration of their careers, YoungArts award winners are eligible for exclusive creative and professional development support, microgrants and financial awards, and presentation opportunities in collaboration with major venues and cultural partners nationwide; and become part of an intergenerational network of more than 22,000 past award winners.

The winners also have the opportunity to participate in YoungArts Labs, all-expenses-paid learning intensives with field defining artists in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville.

YoungArts award winners join a distinguished group of accomplished artists including Daniel Arsham, Jon Batiste, Terence Blanchard, Camille A. Brown, Timothée Chalamet, Viola Davis, Amanda Gorman, Denyce Graves, Judith Hill, Jennifer Koh, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Andrew Rannells, Desmond Richardson, Jean Shin, Hunter Schafer and Shaina Taub.

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