Atherton Student Wins Steve Silver Foundation Arts Scholarship

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Three Bay Area high school students, including one from Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, were named Monday as recipients of $15,000 college scholarships from The Steve Silver Foundation & Beach Blanket Babylon 2019 “Scholarship for the Arts,” according to Jo Schuman Silver, producer of the famed Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco.

Chosen from nine finalists who displayed their talents before a celebrity panel of judges in the live competition at Club Fugazi in San Francisco were: Kyleigh Colchico, for dance, from Clayton Valley Charter High School in Concord, who performed to “Leave A Light On”; Dante Cokinos, for acting, from Novato High School in Novato, who performed a monologue from Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau; and Armand Akbari, for voice, from Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, who performed “Later” from A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim.

Judges included: Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Tracy Chapman; actor and American political satirist Will Durst; composer and philanthropist Gordon Getty; Q102.1’s Chuy Gomez; Suzanne Grodner, cast member from the national tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; famed opera composer Jake Heggie; SFJAZZ Center’s Founder and Executive Artistic Director Randall Kline; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Chief Producer Jonathan Moscone; ODC Founder and Artistic Director Brenda Way; and jazz and cabaret singer Paula West.

Producers of Steve Silver's "Beach Blanket Babylon," the world's longest-running musical revue and an onstage institution in San Francisco, announced earlier this year that it will give its final performance Dec. 31, 2019. Upon its closing, the show, seen by 6.5 million people and famous for its spoofs of political and pop culture, spectacular costumes and iconic hats, will have played a record-breaking 17,216 performances, producers said.

The show's creator, Steve Silver, was renown for his creativity, imagination, whimsy and infamous street performances in San Francisco that drew crowds in the hundreds. Eventually he moved the revue indoors to Savoy Tivoli in North Beach and named the show "Beach Blanket Babylon" on June 7, 1974.

Steve Silver maintained a philanthropic legacy in the community, supporting numerous health, education and performing-arts charities, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Public Library, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, St. Anthony Foundation, Grace Cathedral and the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

Established in 2002, The Steve Silver Foundation and "Beach Blanket Babylon" Scholarship for the Arts awards college scholarships to Bay Area high school seniors, with more than $500,000 to date given to students in performing arts.

For more information on the scholarship program, click here.

• ALSO SEE: Final Curtain Call For 'Beach Blanket Babylon' In San Francisco