Louise Mathis Piano/CMTA Instrumental Scholarship Auditions

Purpose

To encourage and reward students who have demonstrated achievement and dedication to their musical studies.

Any active member in good standing may enter students in the audition.
Entrant must have studied with present teacher for a minimum of six months.
Entrants in grade 7, 8 or 9 enter Division I. Entrants in grade 10, 11 or 12 enter Division II.
A student can WIN the first place award in each division one time only.
Pianists enter the Louise Mathis Scholarship Auditions. Instrumental/Vocal enter the CMTA Scholarship Auditions.

Applications must be submitted on-line.
An entry fee of $15.00 per applicant must accompany each registration.
All registrations must be received on or before Friday, February 4, 2011.
No late entries will be accepted.
Auditions will take place on Saturday, February 19, 2011, at Recital Hall, College of Charleston.

Only standard piano/instrumental solo literature is allowed. No popular, arranged, or simplified music will be accepted.
Entrant must perform three compositions, each from a different musical era.
Division I is a maximum of fifteen minutes in length; Division II is a maximum of twenty minutes.
All music must be memorized.
All music must have numbered measures.

There will be a maximum of two judges for each division.
Judges will be instructed not to stop entrants during the performance unless they have exceeded maximum performance length.
Several minutes will be allotted to each applicant after the performance audition to enable the judges to speak with the entrant if so desired.
Judges may give numerical scores for their own use and computations. However, no numerical scores will be placed on the student critique.
Judges are not required to award the maximum number of scholarships.
Judges will receive a copy of these guidelines.
All judges' decisions are final are not disputable.

A maximum of two scholarships per division will be awarded. The amount of the awards may vary annually as they will be based upon the funds raised in the Faculty/Student duet recital. The most recent awards were $250 for first place and $175 for second place. In prior years the awards were $125 for first place and $50 for second place.
Scholarship winnings will be awarded to the student's teacher, or to a music camp for the student's use the following summer.
Winning students will be recognized and presented a certificate at the Achievement Day Honors Recital. They will be invited to play at that recital if they are not already doing so. Checks for the scholarship will also be awarded at the AD Honors Recital. (If for some reason the check is needed prior to this date, arrangements can probably be made to have the check issued early.)

No teacher who is entering students in the scholarship audition may serve as chairperson of the event.
Teachers will not be notified in advance as to who the scholarship judge(s) are.
Teachers will receive judge(s) evaluations at the end of the day. If the teacher is not present, the evaluations will be mailed to them.
Winners will not be announced at the audition. The scholarship chair will notify teachers of winning students by phone sometime after the conclusion of the auditions.
Teachers will instruct their students that they will be allowed to warm-up on the piano by playing scales and/or chords ONLY. The student is not allowed to play a portion of their audition program as a warm-up. If any portion of the program is played prior to the audition, the student may be disqualified.
Teachers of participating students will not be allowed to discuss students, comments or decisions with the judges. Any such contact by a participating teacher with a judge will result in the disqualification of that teacher's students. Any such contact before, during or after the scholarship audition will also result in the teacher being banned from participating the following year.
The auditions will be open or closed depending upon the suitability of the venue to provide for an open audition.