Scholarship Grants

Giving back to the community

Each year since 1956 the Neshaminy Valley Music Theatre has produced a full Broadway-type musical stage show. The proceeds of the production contribute to a scholarship fund which is awarded to graduating seniors of the Neshaminy School District who plan to continue their studies in the fine or performing arts.

Our most prestigious grant is the Evelyn McLean Memorial Scholarship, named for the founder of the organization. Additional scholarships are awarded annually, including the Joseph J. McGlade Memorial Scholarship, the George W. Kinsley IV Memorial Scholarship for Students of the Woodwind Instruments and the Dotti Gelenberg Memorial Scholarship as well as other grants, the number and size of which are determined by the financial success of the production.

We are very pleased to have awarded a total of three grants for 2020 and are most proud to announce the following recipients of our 2020 scholarships.

Molly’s career goal is one day to be a music teacher. She feels that music is the universal language and finds much passion in spreading it! She is a vocal artist and was a member of the Neshaminy Concert Choir for three years and the high school’s elite Select Choir her final year. Outside of school, Molly is the director of the Neshaminy High School Women’s Choir, an a cappella auditioned group. In her free time, she also composes music, which she often performs in local restaurants as part of a musical duo called Passing Mars. Molly will attend Bucks County Community College, planning to transfer to a four- or five-year university to pursue her Bachelor degree in Music Education.

Elizabeth will attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, focusing on theatre production and lighting design. One of her goals is to become familiar with concert and architectural lighting technology and to pursue high rigging and design. Liz has been active in the Neshaminy High School Dramatics program for her three years in high school and is a member of an elite group of NHS theatre students called the Roadies for which she has served as lighting technician, Lighting Designer and Stage Crew Leader. She feels that theatre and dramatics have offered her the opportunity to gain skills that are life-long and irreplaceable. She hopes to be able to promote and support the arts after graduation and throughout her career.

With a field of study concentrating on violin performance, Nathalie will be attending Rowan University in Glassboro NJ.  She was a member of the Philly Sinfonis, won the honors strings award of the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County and passed auditions at various festivals such as Kinhaven Music, Interlochen and Sphinx Performance Academy at Curtis Institute. Her vocational goal is to build a resume by competing in soloistic and chamber competitions such as the Tchaikovsky Competition held in Russia once every four years and eventually to perform with a major urban orchestra. Another goal for Nathalie is to be a member of Project Music Heals Us which performs for prisons, hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes around the globe.