How it works

1. You send one performance

A single YouTube link — public or unlisted, but not private. Between five and twelve minutes. Free repertoire: one work or several, solo or with accompaniment. You tell us what you played and who played it with you, and nothing else about yourself that the jury will see.

There is no account to create and nothing to upload. If your link breaks or you want to change your repertoire, you can correct it from an emailed link until entries close.

2. Entries close on the published date

The date does not move. Late entries are not accepted, because an exception granted to one applicant cannot be verified as fair by the rest.

3. Three specialists hear all of it

Every eligible entry is heard in full by all three jurors, independently. There is no pre-screening panel deciding what the named jury gets to hear — the thing you paid for is those three people listening, so those three people listen.

While they score, your name, country, teacher and institution are hidden from them. Those details are released to each juror only after that juror has submitted their scores for your entry. We do not call this anonymous judging: a video shows a face. It does mean the playing reaches them first.

4. Scores are combined

Each juror scores five criteria out of 100. The three scores are added, so the maximum is 300. The highest total receives the Prize; the highest-placed entrant under eighteen receives the Junior Award. Ties are broken on interpretation first, then artistic communication, then by the jury in discussion. All of this is set out in the judging criteria.

5. Everyone is told what was heard

On the results date, the winner and the jury's citation are published. Separately and privately, every entrant receives their own scores — criterion by criterion, combined across the three jurors. Not a ranking, not other people's numbers: yours.

One performance receives $500, committed before entries opened and paid regardless of how many people applied.

What the fee buys

The assessment, not a raffle ticket. Three specialists, the whole performance, a published rubric and a written record of what they concluded. The award is the outcome of that assessment rather than the thing being sold — which is why the scores go to everyone and not only to whoever wins.

Entry fees are non-refundable once paid. The exceptions, and there are three, are in the refund policy.