The Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards, founded in 2015, celebrate outstanding composers and lyricists from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
This exciting event features live performances of original songs by talented finalists, with feedback from a panel of esteemed industry judges. The evening culminates in the announcement of the winners, with prizes ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, including a special $2,500 award for a songwriter under 18. The grand prize winner also receives studio time and career consulting.
Join us for a night of exceptional music and discover the region’s rising songwriting stars.
Meet the 2025 Finalists
Hannah Michelle Westley
Hannah Michelle Westley is a singer-songwriter from New Market, Md., known for blending country, folk, and singer-songwriter styles. Drawing inspiration from artists like Fleetwood Mac, Carole King, Lainey Wilson, Miranda Lambert, and Jewel, her deeply personal music reflects her life experiences. She aims to connect with listeners by making them feel seen and heard while encouraging reflection on life's challenges. She credits Steve and Jennifer Swales for their steadfast support and views songwriting as an essential outlet for processing emotions and experiences.
Integriti Reeves
Integriti Reeves is a vocal powerhouse whose "modern vintage" style bridges the past, present, and future of jazz. A graduate of Howard University with a Master of Music in jazz studies, Reeves has performed with legends such as Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding, and Stevie Wonder. Her genre-fluid compositions and voice, often compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, captivate audiences and inspire with their innovative artistry and storytelling.
Jen Hawley
Jen Hawley, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Germantown, Md., blends folk, jazz, pop, gospel, bluegrass, and blues into a rich Americana sound. Her music explores themes of love, loss, friendship, grief, faith, and social justice. A private music instructor for over 16 years, she draws inspiration from her students, family, and musician husband, Dave. Hawley has earned songwriting awards, including first place in the Pop category for "Strawberry Moon," and her album Fragile earned a 2024 WAMMIES nomination. Her songs have been featured on the Women of Substance podcast, with "Can’t Go It Alone" reaching the semifinals of the 2023 Unsigned Only competition.
Laura Brino
Annapolis-based singer-songwriter Laura Brino blends folk, rock, and pop to explore life’s complexities with heartfelt lyrics and catchy refrains. Her latest album, Cactus Moon (2024), reflects her journey through motherhood, trauma, and healing. She describes her evolving sound as "mom pop," touching on themes of aging, marriage, love, loss, and recovery. A founding member of the Songbird Collective and Songbird Festival, Brino continues to connect with listeners through her music, offering solace during difficult times. Her seventh studio album, The Other Side, is set for release in May 2025
Wordsmith
Wordsmith, a Baltimore-based songwriter, poet, and recording artist, is known for his intricate wordplay and emotional depth. Blending hip-hop, jazz, pop, and rock, his music explores themes of love, pain, loss, and hope. A five-time ASCAPLUS Award winner and Grammy voting member, his work has been featured on WWE, ESPN, and Netflix’s Russian Doll. His collaborations with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra include Destined Words and Freedom's Genuine Dawn. Wordsmith is also a TED Talk speaker and the founder of Rise with a Purpose, Inc.
2025 Youth Finalists
Aaron Swibel
Aaron Swibel, a high school sophomore from Rockville, Md., creates music that blends pop rock, pop ballads, country, and traditional rock and roll, exploring themes of love, personal angst, and nostalgia. Swibel began writing as a way to document his thoughts and continues creating to help others reflect on their own emotions. He made his live debut at Outta the Way Cafe in Derwood, Md., and participated in the Maryland High School Choir Invitational, conducted by renowned choral director Jason Max Ferdinand.
Cameron Steele
Cameron Steele, a high school freshman from Leesburg, Va., is known for his indie pop sound, which blends elements of folk and singer-songwriter styles. Releasing his debut album, Pathways, in March 2024, Steele’s music often explores personal reflection, struggles, and global events. Inspired by artists like Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey, he uses music to process emotions and connect with others. He also lead the Virginia chapter of SilverTunes, a group that brings music to elderly community members.
Chloe Stuckey (AKA. Chloe Key)
Chloe Stuckey, known by her stage name “Chloe Key,” is a high school senior from McLean, Va., who blends indie, pop, folk, and rock to explore themes of self-discovery and emotional resilience. In March 2023, she released her debut album, Self-Tied, followed by several singles. Stuckey has performed locally and attended Interlochen Center for the Arts Camp in 2023 and 2024. Stuckey won her school's first-ever talent show and earned first place in Music Composition at Langley High School’s PTSA Reflections Art Contest.
Meet the Final-Round Judges
Damien Sneed
As a multi-genre recording artist and instrumentalist, Damien LeChateau Sneed is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has collaborated with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B legends, including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman, Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Denyce Graves, Lawrence Brownlee, Richard Smallwood, The Clark Sisters, and many others. Sneed is also a 2014 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient.
Sneed recently joined the esteemed faculties of Howard University and The Juilliard School. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where his reimagined adaptation of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha premiered in June 2023.
Sneed was recently signed to Apple Music Classical and Platoon Records (London). His newest recording project, Kaleidoscope, featuring the solo piano music of African American composers, was released in February 2024.
Raul Midón
Blind singer-songwriter and guitarist Raul Midón is nothing if not prolific. His 14th and latest album, Lost & Found, is a blend of what he calls “smooth folk,” “alt-pop,” and “jazz.” A master at combining genres, The New York Times described his music as “a three-way fusion of Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin and José Feliciano.” Midón debuted the album’s first single, the uplifting, bluesy pop song “Keep On Keeping On,” on The Jennifer Hudson Show (December 2023).
Midón has worked with countless industry legends, including Bill Withers, Herbie Hancock, and Sting. In 2022, he paid tribute to Joni Mitchell with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, an event arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza and featuring Lalah Hathaway, Jimmie Herrod, and Renée Fleming (PBS Next at the Kennedy Center).
Midón received back-to-back Grammy nominations in 2017 and 2018 for his albums Bad Ass and Blind and If You Really Want in the Best Jazz Vocal category. In 2019, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, the University of Miami, and the 2021 Disability Rights Ambassador of the Year award, presented by his colleague Jason Mraz.
Angela Sclafani
Angela Sclafani is a New York City-based songwriter, performer, theater-maker, and recording artist. She is the 2019 Fred Ebb Songwriting Award winner, a 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship finalist, a 2018 Richie Jackson Artist Fellow, a 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, and a 2022 Woman to Watch on Broadway (Broadway Women’s Fund). She has developed work at The Orchard Project, Fresh Ground Pepper, and Le Château de La Napoule in France.
Sclafani’s compositions have been featured in the Off-Broadway song cycle Notes from Now (59E59), Rattlestick Playwright Theater’s New Songs Now, NY Theatre Barn’s New Works, and Prospect Theater Company’s Musical Theater Lab. Her projects include Passion Project: Love Songs from Women to Their Work and The Other Side of Paradise, which premiered in Ars Nova’s ANTFest.
As a performer, Sclafani toured in Todd Almond’s Kansas City Choir Boy starring Courtney Love and participated in workshops for Heidi Rodewald’s The Good Swimmer and Burn All Night.
Sclafani has released three EPs of original music, a collection of reimagined Stevie Nicks hits, and the concept album Songs of Other Selves (2023). She is a three-time Great American Songwriting Contest winner and a finalist in the 2021 Unsigned Only and 2020 John Lennon Songwriting contests. Sclafani earned her BFA at NYU Tisch.
Emceed by
Matthew Gardiner
Matthew Gardiner is the Artistic Director of Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. The Washington Post has called him “One of the top young musical-theater directors in the land” and “one of those rarefied musical theatre beasts.” At Signature Theatre, Matthew has directed over 40 productions including revivals of classic musicals like Ragtime, RENT, She Loves Me, A Chorus Line, West Side Story, La Cage Aux Folles, Cabaret, Crazy For You, Jelly's Last Jam, Billy Elliot, The Threepenny Opera, and Dreamgirls, as well as contemporary musicals like Todd Almond’s Girlfriend, Michael John LaChuisa’s See What I Wanna See and the world premieres of Nick Blaemire's Soon, Matt Conner and Hunter Foster’s The Hollow, and Josh Schmidt and Royce Vavrek’s Midwestern Gothic. With Signature’s special commitment to producing the work of Stephen Sondheim, Matthew has directed and/or choreographed many Sondheim musicals including A Funny Thing…, Into The Woods, Passion, Sunday in the Park with George, Company, Sweeney Todd, Saturday Night, Side By Side By Sondheim and the world premiere theatrical concert Simply Sondheim. Also at Signature, Matthew has directed plays like Max Wolf Friedrich’s Job, Yasmina Reza’s Art, Philip Ridley’s Tender Napalm, Christopher Shinn’s Dying City, as well as the world premiere of Paul Downs Colaizzo’s Really Really. Outside of Signature, Matthew has directed and/or choreographed at most of the prominent regional theatre’s in the Washington, DC area including The Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, Fords Theatre, Round House Theatre, Studio Theatre. Matthew has also worked abroad, choreographing Titanic and directing and choreographing Doctor Zhivago for OD Musical Company in Seoul, Korea. Matthew is the recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical and has been honored with over 20 nominations. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and is a member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers.
Plan Your Visit
Strathmore extends its deepest gratitude to Cathy, Alex, and Amanda Bernard for their unwavering dedication to our region’s talented songwriters and for generously investing in this meaningful event.
Strathmore is grateful for Innovation Station Music for its support of this program.
