2024 Scholarship Winners!
Congratulations to our talented 2024 winners. Keep on singing!
Elyse Abad is 18 years old and currently in her first year at California State University Long Beach studying Classical Vocal Performance. Currently, she performs with Coastline Acapella and the University Choir. She has sung competitively, winning first place in both Riverside’s Got Talent 2022 and Riverside Sings 2019. She has also sung roles in several musical theater productions. She attended King High School in Riverside, where she sang in both show choir and jazz ensemble. When she is back home, she sings with her church’s worship team and plans to continue singing there. Elyse hopes to pursue music professionally and is very grateful for CWC’s support on her journey!
Shania Carden is a 25-year-old soprano based in Southern California.
Her recent engagements include singing the role of Pinocchio in Natalia Valli’s Pinocchio with Opera Italia in Los Angeles and Fortuna and Lucano in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Trentino Music Festival in Fiera di Primiero, Italy. She will be traveling to Philadelphia this summer to perform the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Shania is also an avid chorister. Her choral experience has taken her to Italy, New York, Ohio, and Arizona. She has sung under the baton of Robert Istad, Christopher Peterson, Carl St. Clair, John Williams, Jonathan Talberg, and Gustavo Dudamel. Some highlights include singing at Maestro at the Movies at the Hollywood Bowl and premiering Jake Runestad’s The Lighthouse Keeper with the Bob Cole Chamber Choir.
She received her bachelor’s degree from California State University Fullerton. She completed her Master’s of Music in Voice Performance at California State University Long Beach in May 2024. She studies voice under Dr. Katharin Rundus.
Rebekah Michel is a sophomore commercial music major and a musical theatre minor at Concordia University Irvine. She is a member of The Concordia Choir and is heavily involved in the theatre department as well. Her recent musical theatre credits include Anything Goes and Godspell at Concordia. Rebekah was also a semi-finalist for the Musical Theatre Initiative at the 2023 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was recently accepted into the Musical Theater Studio of Musiktheater Bavaria in Oberaudorf, Germany, and she will be training there this upcoming summer. Outside of musical theatre, Rebekah enjoys writing, coffee and crocheting. She expresses immense gratitude to her friends, family and Dr. Shan for always supporting her involvement in the arts and to California Women’s Chorus for this wonderful opportunity and scholarship.