Preliminary Entrant Information:

• The competition will be held at Columbia Basin College in the P-Building Theatre on February 8th, 2025
• All competition participants must be students from Kindergarten through Grade 12 who reside in the Mid-Columbia area of Washington and Oregon. This includes the counties of Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Adams, Grant, Columbia, Klickitat, Yakima, Umatilla, and Morrow.
• Registration will close on Monday Jan. 27th, 2025 by 11:59 pm PST
• There will be a nonrefundable registration fee of $50 per competitor
• Once a form is submitted, a staff member will contact the student and their parent(s)/guardian(s) to assign a practice room window and performance time, as well as provide payment details and other supplementary information.

Competition Rules and Repertoire

There will be nine divisions:

• Primary: K – 5th Grade –  Piano, Strings
• Intermediate: 6th – 8th Grade  –  Piano, Strings, Winds
• Senior: 9th – 12th Grade–  Piano, Strings, Winds, Voice
• Entrants will be given a 15-minute total window to perform their music as submitted, memorized, and from standard orchestral repertoire for soloists.
• Cuts may be made to an arrangement so as to fit it within the time limit, though it is expected for all recited movements to be performable unabridged if selected as winners to play with the Symphony.
• Previous competition winners who have performed in concert with the Mid-Columbia Symphony are ineligible to win within the same division, but may apply within a different instrument/age group.

Judging Procedures:

Judges will observe for:

• Expressive Performability – Delivering a compelling and engaged performance
• Stylistic Acumen – Proficiently and consistently conveying the tone, texture, and theme of the music
• Technical Fluency – Demonstrating a familiarity with the conventions of music reading and the operation of their instrument.
• Judges however, are not obligated to choose or default a winner in any given division. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony taking place after the last entrant has finished their performance.
• Two overall winners will be selected and awarded with a monetary prize of $250 each, publication on the Mid-Columbia Symphony website, and an opportunity to perform their music with the Mid-Columbia Symphony during their March 29th, 2025 Concert.
• Divisional winners will be awarded with a monetary prize of $50 each.