Chloe Capaci competes for the Glover Award at the 2022 Arts & The Park festival.
The Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance (HSACA) will host its 3rd annual Glover Awards, formerly known as the Henry Glover Songwriting Competition, as part of the 10-day Arts & The Park spring arts festival. The contest pays homage to local music industry pioneer, Henry Glover, a Langston High School alumnus.
Songwriters can enter their submissions and pay the $25 entry fee on the HSACA website www.hotspringsarts.org, from now through Saturday, April 1. Finalists will perform live at Art Springs, Saturday, April 29. The contest will add an instrumental category, giving both lyricists and instrumentalists an opportunity to win.
Entries require written lyrics or a music sheet and a link to a video performance of the song being entered. The top entries will be chosen as finalists. Entries will not be judged on the quality of the video, however, the sound quality must be clear. The songwriters selected to compete in the final round can perform their own works or have them performed by proxy, however, the writer(s) must be present at the performance. A winner for each category will be determined by a panel of judges, live at Art Springs on April 29.
The Glover Awards welcomes a new event chair, professional musician, and arts entrepreneur, Chuck Dodson. Dodson, who resides in Hot Springs stated: “Henry Glover was ahead of his time. He did things in music that people thought you couldn’t do. And he succeeded in ways no one had before him.”
The winners will be awarded a Glover – a handcrafted trophy constructed by artist Brad Wreyford, as well as a cash prize.
Glover was a pioneering African American songwriter, producer, arranger, A&R man, and musician who grew up in Hot Springs. Later he became one of the first African American music executives and the first African American producer of country music.
A few titles in Glover’s catalog include: “Fever,” “California Sun,” and “The Peppermint Twist.” There is currently a traveling exhibit about Glover at the Old Statehouse Museum in Little Rock.
The Arts & The Park festival, produced by HSACA and presenting sponsor Arvest Bank, runs from April 28 through May 7. For more information, visit www.hotspringsarts.org.
