The Orange County Register is proud to announce the 2024 nominees for the Artist of the Year program.
Designed as a companion to the annual high school Athlete of the Year honors, this program honors top junior and senior artists in Orange County.
In 2014, the first year of the program, 113 students were nominated, representing 50 schools. In this 11th year, 892 students were nominated, representing 85 local high schools, arts organizations and private arts instructors.
See all the nominees
Dance
Film and TV
Instrumental music
Vocal music
Theater
Fine arts
Media arts
Based on the most recent data collected by the California Department of Education, 79,004 juniors and seniors were enrolled in Orange County in the 2022-2023 school year, indicating that this year’s class of nominees represent the top 1% of all juniors and seniors in the county.
Students are nominated by arts teachers and private instructors in seven different disciplines: theater, dance, film and TV, vocal music, instrumental music, media arts and fine arts. In past years, teachers identified specific specialties in which the student was strongest. For instance, in fine arts, a student might be specifically nominated in the specialty of ceramics or painting. This year, instead of the teachers, the students were given the freedom to identify and showcase their specific specialties based their strengths, and they could identify multiple specialties. For instance, a fine arts student may choose to specifically showcase ceramics and painting.
Following this initial nomination, a panel of arts educators narrows down the lists and choose 16 semifinalists in each discipline to move on to a round of in-person interviews with arts professionals and arts faculty from Orange County universities. The semifinalists will be announced on April 21. The top finalists and Artist of the Year for each discipline will be announced on April 28.
An awards ceremony will be held in Memorial Hall on the Chapman University campus at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8. This celebration is free and open to the public and will include performances and presentations by the top students.
This program is in the fifth year of a generous sponsorship from the Chapman University College of Performing Arts. Chapman has committed $25,000 a year for general operating expenses.
“As I prepare to retire from my position as Dean of the College of Performing Arts, I can say that the partnership we forged with The Orange County Register’s Artist of the Year program is a very special achievement for me,” said Giulio M. Ongaro, dean of Chapman’s College of Performing Arts. “I have gone to the award ceremonies and watched the talent displayed by the students, and I am so proud we can support the arts in our community. I do believe that arts education does enrich the lives of the individuals and of the community, and prepares our students for success, no matter what they decide to do as a career. I am grateful to the Register supporting the arts in this way.”
Additional support this year is provided by the UC Irvine Clair Treavor School of the Arts, will help provide awards to the top students.
To view the complete list of nominees for each discipline, endorsements from the students’ teachers and links to samples of the students’ work, click on the links below.
Dance
Film and TV
Fine Arts
Instrumental Music
Media Arts
Theater
Vocal Music