The Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh presented Mt. Lebanon High School junior Alex Farb with this year’s Barbara Cass Award. The award honors the most outstanding member of the choir, chosen by their peers. Farb is also in the Mt. Lebanon concert choir, chamber choir and men’s ensemble, in which he is a bass section leader. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Youth Choir from 2014 to 2019, and is currently active with the Pittsburgh CLO Academy of Musical Theater and the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus’s high school program.

Pittsburgh City Theatre chose Mollie Gill, a Jefferson Middle School eighth-grader, to receive an honorable mention in their Young Playwrights Contest. Gill’s play, Colorblind, was read over Zoom by City Theatre actors.

Her work was selected from among several hundred submitted by students in  western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Four plays are chosen from middle school authors—two featured plays and two honorable mentions.

Colorblind is the story of a blind middle school student who has never experienced racism before, and in fact, does not even know the color of his own skin, until he begins attending school in person for the first time. His experience forces him to come to terms with how sight impacts societal views, choices his parents have made and how students often model what they see at home. He also learns how truth is freeing and how friendships can strengthen in the face of adversity.

Karen Kutzer, Parkview Drive, was honored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals as the 2021 Outstanding Fundraising Executive of the year. Kutzer has worked in fundraising for the past 35 years, with Point Park University, tYe University of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, among others, before founding Karen Kutzer Associates. She is president of the Board of Advisors for Penn State Greater Allegheny and has served on the board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Western Pennsylvania Chapter. She was also past president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development.

The Allegheny County Medical Society named Forest Glen Drive resident Justin Vujevich the recipient of its Physician Volunteer of the Year Award. In 2003, Vujevich founded a dermatology clinic on Pittsburgh’s South Side that offers free health care to people who are homeless and/or uninsured. He also has chaired the society’s Angel’s Fund since 2011, which partners with Children’s Hospital, the Highmark Caring Place and St. Judes Children’s Hospital to provide financial assistance to children and families with exceptional medical needs.

CALL FOR ENTRIES Keynotes of South Hills is accepting applications for its annual Music Scholarship Competition, which will be held May 14, at The Fine Arts Theater of Mt. Lebanon High School. The competition is open to any full-time college music major, or a graduating high school senior accepted for admission as a full-time music major, who is a  resident of Allegheny, Washington or surrounding Pennsylvania counties. Instrumentalists must be under 26 years of age by June 1, and vocalists must be under the age of 30. Competitors are eligible for up to $12,000 in prize money. Deadline for application is April 30. To apply, call 412-892-8395 or email jj.kvederis@verizon.net.