Competitions in Music Performance

General Information

All rounds of the competition will take place in Kobacker Hall, Moore Musical Arts Center. Preliminaries will be held from November 29 to December 1. Finals will be held Saturday December 2, 2023. All details will be posted and announced by the competition's coordinator, Katherine Pracht Phares. Winners will perform with the Bowling Green Philharmonia or the Wind Symphony during the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year.

Eligibility

Competition participants, in both the semester of the semi-finals/finals and the semester of public appearance with accompanying ensemble, must be full-time BGSU degree-pursuing students who are registered for applied lessons in their medium of competition. Certificate students taking six hours of credit are eligible to compete in the graduate division. Previous winners who have performed with orchestra or band and College Credit Plus students are ineligible.

Competition Procedures

The competition will be held in two rounds.

Preliminary Round

  1. Undergraduate Division: All instruments/voices are judged together.
  2. Graduate Division: All instruments/voices are judged together.

The winners of the preliminary rounds will advance to the final rounds.

Final Round

  1. Undergraduate Division: All instruments/voices are judged together; up to two winners and two runners up may be chosen from this division.
  2. Graduate Division: All instruments/voices are judged together; up to two winners and two runners up may be chosen from this division.

Please Note: The judges need not fill all winning positions if, in their opinion, a high level of artistry is not displayed.

To Apply

To complete your application, you must fill out the application form and then print it so that all signatures can be obtained. Completed forms must be submitted to Norine McElroy in the College office by 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 9, 2023.

For composition applicants, applications are due to Kurt Doles by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 5, 2023. Please see link below.

All repertoire must be approved by the respective applied teacher and by the appropriate ensemble director. The purpose of the latter approval is to ascertain:

  • The availability of the materials,
  • The cost of renting or purchasing the materials, and
  • Whether or not the ensemble can provide an adequate accompaniment.

Awards

Finalists in each division will receive a certificate of merit.

Winners in each division will receive a certificate of merit and will perform as soloists with the Bowling Green Philharmonia or the Wind Symphony.

Please note: At the Spring Semester winners' concert, the undergraduate winners will perform for no longer than 15 minutes. Graduate winners may perform up to 30 minutes. Cuts of larger pieces may be necessary and will be decided on at the discretion of the conductor in consultation with the studio teacher.

Virginia Marks Collaborative Piano Award: As a part of the competition, an award of distinction in performance will be given to a selected collaborative pianist from either the undergraduate or graduate division. This award is given in honor of former Professor of Piano Virginia Marks, who championed the importance of collaborative work and performance by piano students at the College of Musical Arts.

Division Repertoire Requirements

Undergraduate Division

Undergraduates must be prepared to perform no more than 15 minutes of concerted music in the final round and no more than 10 minutes in the preliminary round. The student, in consultation with their applied teacher, can decide to either present a "cut version" of their selection or submit complete movements/works. If the latter option is chosen, the judges will be given the opportunity to choose the section or sections to which they would like to listen and may stop the contestant at any time. In both rounds, students will have one minute to set the stage, adjust the piano bench, tune, etc. before beginning their performance.

Instrumentalists

All movements or selected movements of a concerto or concerto-like composition for solo instrument(s) and orchestra or band. Concertos for more than one instrument are allowed, but are still subject to the memorization requirement and time limit. If any of the performers are a certificate or graduate student, the entry must be in the graduate division.

Vocalists

Arias or works with orchestra or band accompaniment.

Graduate Division

Graduates must be prepared to perform no more than 20 minutes of concerted music in the final round and no more than 12 minutes in the preliminary round. The student, in consultation with their applied teacher, can decide to either present a "cut version" of their selection or submit complete movements/works. If the latter option is chosen, the judges will be given the opportunity to choose the section or sections to which they would like to listen and may stop the contestant at any time. In both rounds, students will have one minute to set the stage, adjust the piano bench, tune, etc. before beginning their performance.

Instrumentalists

All movements (or selected movements) of a concerto or concerto-like composition for solo instrument(s) and orchestra or band. In order to stay within the allotted time, the performer must, in consultation with the private instructor, make appropriate cuts and will be stopped after 12 minutes (prelims), 20 minutes (finals). Concertos for more than one instrument are allowed, but are still subject to the memorization requirement and time limit. If any of the performers are a certificate or graduate student, the entry must be in the graduate division.

Vocalists

At least three arias or a substantial work with orchestra or band.

Composition Division

The Composition Division is coordinated by Dr. Christopher Dietz. For information about the guidelines and application procedure please click here.

General Rules of the Competition

  • Memorization is required for all contestants in the competition as well as the performance (if selected as a winner). No applicant will be allowed to perform with music.
  • Contestants must provide their own collaborative pianist. Please also note that the accompaniment must be a piano reduction of the orchestral score or band score.
  • No changes in repertoire are permitted after applications are submitted without the written permission of the applied instructor, the appropriate ensemble director and the competitions coordinator.
  • In the case that the submitted repertoire exceeds the allotted time of the preliminary round, the choice to either present a "cut version" or the complete movements/works must be made and communicated to the competition coordinator by the withdrawal deadline.
  • Winners may not change their repertoire selection for the Spring Semester winners' concert. In the case of a multi-movement work, no change in selection of movements is permitted.
  • Repertoire may not be changed between the preliminaries and the finals under any circumstances.
  • Students must provide one copy of the score for the jury. Students who do not have a score for the jury will be disqualified and not permitted to audition.
  • The deadline for withdrawing from the competition is 9 a.m. on Monday, November 27, 2023. Remaining participants’ performance times will move up accordingly. Therefore, soloists and collaborative pianists must be prepared to perform one hour prior to their scheduled times. Soloists and collaborative pianists will be required to sign-in with the competitions coordinator one hour prior to their scheduled time and must be in the Green Room ready to perform 20 minutes before their scheduled time. Participants, including collaborative pianists, will forfeit their audition if they are not present within the one-hour time frame.
2019-Concerto-A17I9316
Pictured from left to right: Jonathan Kierspe, Mei-Yi Wang, Ariel Magno da Costa, Erin Redick, Alec Porter

Winners of the 2020-2021 Competition in Music Performance

COMPOSITION

2020-21: Adam Har-zvi, The Yeats Songs

Winners of the 2019-2020 Competition in Music Performance

UNDERGRADUATE-PERFORMANCE

Taylor Francis, flute

Cole Habekost, violin

Honorable mention: Tai Knoll, flute

GRADUATE-PERFORMANCE

Thomas Roggio, violin

Lindsey Welp, saxophone

Honorable mention: Yuefeng Liu, piano

COMPOSITION

Pablo Gomez-Estevez, Neruda

VIRGINIA MARKS COLLABORATIVE PIANIST AWARD

Min-Shan Tsai

Winners of the 2018-2019 Competition in Music Performance

UNDERGRADUATE - PERFORMANCE 

Alec Porter, flute

Erin Redick, marimba

Honorable Mention: Sean Baker, tuba

GRADUATE - PERFORMANCE

Jonathan Kierspe, saxophone

Mei-Yi Wang, piano

Honorable Mention: Coreisa Lee, flute

COMPOSITION

Emilio González, El Chupacabra

Jesse Diener-Bennett, Six Embers

VIRGINIA MARKS COLLABORATIVE PIANIST AWARD

Ariel Magno da Costa

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Pictured from left to right: Rhys Burgess, Andrew Hosler, Caroline Kouma, Zhanglin Hu, Kyle McConnell, Kory Reeder

Winners of the 2017-2018 Competition in Music Performance

UNDERGRADUATE - PERFORMANCE 

Zhanglin Hu, piano

Andrew Hosler, saxophone

Honorable mention: Gretchen Hill, clarinet

GRADUATE - PERFORMANCE

Caroline Kouma, soprano

Kyle McConnell, trombone

Honorable mention: Sijia Lin, piano

COMPOSITION

Kory Reeder, The Location of Lines

VIRGINIA MARKS COLLABORATIVE PIANIST AWARD

Rhys Burgess, piano

Updated: 10/12/2023 10:03AM