If your child has been at the piano for a few years and there is nothing to aim at, this gives them a deadline and a real adjudication without a road trip. Everything is judged from a video: you record at home, paste a YouTube link into the form, and that is the entry.
Three separate things run under one roof — the Piano Competition, a Young Composers Competition for kids who write their own music, and a Judged Festival open to instrumental and vocal soloists and to chamber groups, so a duet, trio or quartet can enter together. Each needs its own form and fee.
Age divisions are set by your child’s age on November 15, 2026: Junior 5–8, Pre-Intermediate 9–11, Intermediate 12–14, Senior 15–18, with the allowed programme length rising from 5 to 12 minutes. The form asks for teacher details but has a box for students studying independently.
Entries close October 25, 2026. Fees run from $25 per player in a festival ensemble to $95 for a piano concerto entry. Worth reading the awards and jury pages before you commit.
Beyond the age-division prizes, a Grand Prix winner in each competition gets $500 and a crystal trophy, the piano competition offers four $200 Cultural Heritage Awards — Armenian, Jewish, Russian and Ukrainian — and Special Composer Awards go to standout performances of published pieces by Melody Bober, Timothy Brown, Alexander Peskanov or Catherine Rollin. Full list on the Awards page.
More in the piano teachers and schools directory.