Kyle Phillips, a music teacher at Princeton Middle and High School, won $10,000 through the Manilow Music Teacher Award after a community voting campaign in January and February.

Phillips received $5,000 personally and $5,000 in instruments and supplies for Princeton City Schools, according to the district. The instrument portion comes as "Manilow Bucks" designated for classroom purchases. The Princeton Music Boosters and the Cincinnati Enquirer nominated Phillips for the national award, which honors outstanding music educators in cities along Barry Manilow's concert tour.

The selection process combined community and media nominations with online public voting. Students and community members voted daily for Phillips from Jan. 30 through Feb. 12. The Princeton Music Boosters and Princeton City Schools shared updates throughout the campaign to drive turnout.

The result stayed quiet. A small group learned Phillips had won in mid-February, but the recognition was delayed. The March 5 concert where he was set to be honored was canceled because of Manilow's health. Manilow had announced a Stage 1 lung cancer diagnosis and underwent surgery, with his medical team describing the outlook as optimistic.

The concert was rescheduled, and Phillips was recognized onstage Aug. 5 at Heritage Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati. Award winners meet Manilow backstage before the on-stage ceremony.

The Manilow Music Project, a program of the Manilow Fund, has distributed more than $10 million in instruments and scholarships to schools nationwide. Manilow has said he credits his high school orchestra class in Brooklyn with changing his life. He formed the project after learning that even well-funded school districts had music programs suffering from budget cuts.

Phillips is not the only Princeton connection to the award. Gretchen Wyder-Zunic, a Princeton City Schools alumna from the Class of 1987, was also honored during Manilow's August show at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Wyder-Zunic recently retired from Upper Arlington as a music teacher.

The district published the announcement Sept. 10 on the Princeton Community Middle School and Princeton High School pages. No details have been released about which instruments or supplies the $5,000 in Manilow Bucks will fund.