General

1.  Parents and students who participate in a competitive event are not allowed to contact the chair under any circumstances. All communication with the chair must be done through the participating teacher.

2. Teachers are asked to refrain from posting on social media posts information identifying their students or their repertoire from the postmark deadline through the date of the competition.

3.  No one except the chair shall engage in any type of communication with the judges until the results have been announced.

4.  Judges shall not be informed of the names of participating students or their teachers. Scores and/or ratings sheets that are given to the judges shall not have any personal identification.

5.  “For the Robert Spencer Piano Concerto Competition, Piano Achievement Awards, and Piano Northern District Auditions, any judge must not have judged or accompanied in the previous two calendar years for these events. For example, a person who accompanied or judged in 2017 would not be eligible to judge again until 2020.”  Chairs of these events shall consult the Competition Resource Chair to verify eligibility of judges.

6.  The chair shall not serve as a judge in any event that he/she is chairing.

7.  Teachers shall ensure that their participating students are informed of all rules governing competitive events as well as the information found in each event description.

8.  Judges will make their decisions with no input from the chair or monitor.

9.  The decision of the judges is final in all cases.

10. Teacher Responsibilities (see https://nvmta.org/teacher-responsibilities/)

11.  Video and audio recording are allowed in regular and competitive events for strings, voice, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Video and audio recording is allowed in competitive and non-competitive events for piano, with the exception of fall festival, spring festival, sonata festival, and northern district auditions. Any recordings must be confirmed to be recorded by and for the performing student’s personal purposes. Video/audio recordings may not be used to dispute the decisions of the judges, which are final.

12.  Chairs of all competitive events shall have badges for each judge so that they may be easily identified.

13.  Judges shall be informed by Chair that they shall have no interaction with attendees at the event.

14. It is at the discretion of the chair(s) of a competitive event to reduce the judges accordingly, in order to accommodate the needs of the event.

Repertoire and Scores

1.  Changes in repertoire will not be permitted after the competition deadline.

2.  Entrant will abide by all copyright laws and has permission to use all music given to judges and accompanists during all events as outlined here.

Application

1.  Only the participating teacher shall complete and submit applications and checks. The teacher shall send only one check per studio. Applications and checks sent by students or their parents will not be accepted.

2.  All entries must include specific repertoire information, including key, opus number, movement and tempo.

3.  All application materials, including fees, must be postmarked by the deadline and applications must be filled out online by the postmark deadline.

4.  There are no refunds for any student who is unable to participate for any reason.

5.  Teachers shall photocopy each application to avoid any disputes regarding the application repertoire submission.

Scheduling

1.  Some events allow teachers to make scheduling requests on the application. Please refer to event description.

2.  Once the schedule for a given event has been sent to participating teachers, there can be no changes to the schedule.

3.  The final decision on scheduling and related aspects of each event rests with the chair.

4.  Students who are not present and ready to perform at their assigned time may play for comments only, and only if time permits.