MSUB Connections student wins national music award

Jordan Shawver, an incoming freshman to Montana State University Billings, was recently announced as the second place winner of the Grand Teton Music Festival High School Senior Competition. This second place finish earned Shawver $12,500 in prize money.

Due to COVID-19, all festival contestants performed acapella, including Shawver singing Figaro’s aria from Marriage of Figaro, The Vagabond from Songs of Travel, and Wolfram’s aria from Tannhäuser.

Shawver is a baritone studying voice through the Connections program at MSUB with Associate Professor Doug Nagel. Shawver is a recent graduate of Skyview High School who will pursue Music Performance this fall.

As a junior in high school, Shawver took first place in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Statewide Competition – High School Division. The son of Wayne and Holly Shawver of Billings, he toured Europe with Northern Ambassadors of Music and attended Interlochen Music Camp. Shawver has sung Figaro in Marriage of Figaro and the chorus of Pirates of Penzance at Nova Center for the Performing Arts, and sang at Billings Studio Theater in Shrek Jr., Into the Woods and Elf.