After BriAnna Dewar, 16, took home the top prize in the June 21 Slidell’s Got Talent competition, she didn’t have much time to rest.

The Salmen High School student had to hop a 6 a.m. flight to Michigan the next morning for a three-week intensive music program at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the prestigious cultural arts academy.

Dewar has been singing since at least the age of 3, when she would entertain her mother and grandmother on long car trips. It wasn’t until 2005, however, that she started serious training. She now practices about three hours a day, more or less.

Brianna Dewar, 16, poses with her trophy after winning the Slidell'€™s Got Talent competition held recently. (Courtesy Photo)

“You can’t practice too much,” said Dewar. “You can wreck your voice.”

Instead, she says she’s learned there are other things to work on besides singing. Diction, for example, helps her to use correct pronunciation when singing in a foreign language.

For the competition, Dewar sang a medley of “Il Mio Bel Foco” and “Stormy Weather,” a mix of two classical and jazz standards.

“It’s hard to say what’s my favorite style, because I really like being able to do both,” she said. “I’d be sad if I had to give one up.”

The teenager was accompanied on the piano by Joseph Cotton, her voice coach and homeroom teacher at Salmen since her freshman year. In addition to her coaching at Salmen, where she maintains an average of A’s and B’s, she studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

In addition to a cash prize of $1,500, a video of Dewar’s winning performance will be submitted to “America’s Got Talent,” the nationally televised NBC talent show, as an audition for the show’s next season. In the meantime, she’ll consider her college plans.

Her top choice is The Juilliard School, the esteemed New York music academy founded in 1905. A recent visit to the campus, however, left her a bit uncertain.

“I can’t explain it, but I just didn’t feel comfortable there,” she said. “Besides, I’m thinking about a double major, and I don’t know if they let you do that.”

Besides her vocal training, Dewar is also studying theatre technology and design at NOCCA. She loves to design costumes, an interest she credits to her grandmother for showing her how to draw at about the age of six. Dewar began copying images out of fashion magazines, and still has the old drawings, so she can measure her progress over the years.

Whatever her choice, it’s clear the teenager has left her mark on her hometown.

“We are very proud of BriAnna,” said Cultural & Public Affairs Director Kim Bergeron. “She is an amazing talent and Slidell is incredibly lucky to have her share her gift with us.”