Amber Rubarth, a 28-year-old, Brooklyn NY-based singer-songwriter, is the grand-prize winner in the 2010 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest. The international finals for the noted performing songwriter contest — presented by the live performance radio show and produced by the independent music organization NewSong Music — took place on Friday afternoon, October 22, at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden in New York City. John Platt, host of “Sunday Breakfast” on New York’s WFUV, served as emcee for the event.

Amber Rubarth

Rubarth, who grew up in California and accompanies herself on both guitar and keyboards, has released three solo albums, a duo recording (The Paper Raincoat) with Alex Wong and an EP collaboration with Adam Levy. In 2006, “Washing Day,” a co-write with Levy, captured first place in the lyrics only category of the International Songwriting Competition. A video of that song currently graces Rubarth’s popular MySpace page.

As the contest’s grand prize winner, Rubarth receives the opportunity to record a five-track EP with Grammy-winning producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Norah Jones) at Saint Claire Recording Company, a residential studio in Lexington KY. In addition to receiving 1,000 copies of the completed disc and a performance opportunity in Los Angeles presented by Arts Brookfield, she will be invited to perform on the internationally broadcast, NPR-distributed “Mountain Stage” that has showcased more than 2000 artists since its inception in 1983.

Other performing artists in this year’s Mountain Stage NewSong Contest finals included David Berkeley (San Francisco CA), Emily Elbert (Boston MA), Roger Gupton (Raleigh NC), Rebecca Jordan (Brooklyn NY), Ian Link (Detroit MI), Ben Lubeck (Orono MN), Lauren Lucas (Nashville TN), Malia (Keller TX), Lauren O’Connell (Rehnert Park CA), Rob Szabo (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), and Tori Vasquez (Shallowater TX).