2026

Date: TBA

Location: TBA

Registration: TBA

Register: here

Purpose

• To provide students with the opportunity to be critiqued by a judge

• To provide students with a positive, professional critique of his/her performance

• To provide students with a healthy, encouraging atmosphere for competition

Eligible Students

• Students of members of TVMTA in good standing (dues current)

• Students of non-TVMTA members who pay non-member fees

• Students who are in high school or younger

• Students will be entered solely by the teacher from whom they take lessons

• Teachers may not enter students of other teachers under their own name

Fees

• See registration website for fee details

Music

• Repertoire is announced each year on a repertoire list. Here is the 2026 list. (See below for corrections.)

• All measures must be numbered

• All music must be original (no copies)

• Music printed from the public domain (example:  IMSLP) or from a sheet music CD is acceptable if properly documented at the top of the first page

• Repeats:  observe the instructions on the current Repertoire List

• Judges will follow these guidelines

Competition

• The competition is divided into 13 piano solo levels of increasing difficulty, with two choices of piece for each level.

• Pieces are not limited to classical repertoire or sonatinas/sonatas.

• All music is to be performed by memory.

• Students may only enter just one level/event and are not required to advance from the previous year’s level.

• Levels with large registrations are divided into sublevels, and each sublevel is judged individually.

• Adjudicators work as objectively as possible without information of the students’ teacher names, ages or grades of students, etc.  Teachers are admonished to not approach/contact the judges regarding specific students’ performance.

• First and second place winners from each group will be chosen, and up to three additional students from each group may be chosen to receive Honorable Mention awards.

Results

• Results will be completed and posted on the TVMTA website shortly after the judging of each sublevel is completed.

Honors Recital

• Honors Recitals will be held later in the day. Two finalists will be selected from each sublevel and invited to play for the judges to award First and Second place. Any student receiving Honorable Mention is invited to attend and receive recognition.

Awards

• First and Second Place winners from each group will be awarded trophies, and Honorable Mentions (up to three per sublevel) will be awarded red rosette ribbons.  Trophies and ribbons will be distributed to teachers to give to their students.

Sonatina Chair: Steven Slaughter, boisedoubleagents@gmail.com