Preston Symphony Orchestra

Preston Symphony Orchestra

Youth Concerto Competition

The 2025 YCC

The Preston Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition is one of the few opportunities for talented young musicians to rehearse and perform a concerto work with a full symphony orchestra. The competition has been running since 1988 and 2025 will be the 36th occasion.

The competition is judged at a concert at which each finalist plays their work before an audience and adjudicator. This follows a series of rehearsals at which each finalist can work with the conductor and orchestra to bring their performance to its highest standard.

Many previous winners and finalists of the competition have gone on to advanced study and careers in music, including Cameron Hill, Anne-Marie Johnson, Karla Hanna, Charlotte Miles, and Anna Gao.

Preston Symphony Orchestra has a Child safety and well-being policy which underpins all stages of the Youth Concerto Competition. It can be viewed and downloaded here.

If you have any questions, please send us an email at:

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Key Dates for the 2025 Youth Concerto Competition

Details available in Jan/February 2025.

Applications
Applications for the 2025 competition open and close on dates to be listed here in Jan/Feb 2025. Applications are made on the YCC page of the Preston Symphony Orchestra website. A link will be available from the when applications are open. Please see below for further details of the competition and the rules.

Youth Concerto Competition rules 2025

Age Limit
The Competition is open to players of orchestral instruments and piano who are 18 or under on 1st July 2025.

Work
A complete work with orchestral accompaniment or selected movements may be submitted. Maximum duration should be 15 minutes. A longer work could be considered if cuts can be negotiated. For unusual works please check the availability of orchestral parts. If orchestral parts cannot be readily sourced, this may preclude an entrant from proceeding as a finalist.

Previous winners and finalists’ lockout
In order to give as many young musicians as possible the chance to perform with the orchestra, finalists are not eligible to enter in the year following their concert participation; winners are not eligible to enter the following two competitions. This does not apply for entries with a second instrument.

Entry Fee
All entrants are required to pay a fee of $20 when they submit their online application. There is no further payment.  If the entry fee is a barrier to your application, please email the orchestra (see the top section for the email address).

How to enter
Applications are made by completing an online form, via a link available on this page when applications open. The opening and closing dates for applications for the 2025 competition will be available in late January 2025. Late entries may be accepted at the discretion of the Secretary.

All entrants are required to submit a video recording of their chosen work. This is to be uploaded to YouTube and the URL pasted into the online application form (see guidelines below). There is also the entry fee of $20 to be paid via a Trybooking link that will be available here.

Auditions
There are two stages to the selection of finalists for the Youth Concerto Competition. All applicants are asked to submit a video recording to be viewed and discussed by the audition panel, following which selected players will be invited to the in-person auditions:

  • Video submission:
    • All applicants should submit a video recording playing their chosen work. It does not have to include an accompanist. The duration should be a minimum of 5 minutes from the start of the solo part, with a maximum of 15 minutes. Please see the guidelines below for advice on making the recording and submitting it via YouTube. 
  • In-person auditions:
    • Approximately 20 applicants will be selected to attend in-person auditions. For this, entrants should prepare their selected work to demonstrate their potential as a performer. If you intend playing more than one movement in the event you are selected as a finalist, please be ready to play an excerpt from these movements at the audition. Entrants should provide their own accompanist (assistance with names is available). The audition will last about 7 minutes. Please bring a copy of your concerto movement for the audition panel (a photocopy is fine). Bar numbers need to be marked on your part and the accompanist’s part. Piano introductions need to be kept short.
    • The date for in-person auditions will be announced in January 2025.

Finalists’ concert
At least 5 entrants will be selected to perform with the Preston Symphony Orchestra in the competition concert on 14th September 2025.

Rehearsals
Finalists will be required to rehearse with the orchestra three times, twice on selected Tuesday evenings at Preston City Hall in the weeks before the concert, and at the final rehearsal at Darebin Arts Centre on Friday 12 September prior to the concert on Sunday 14 September. The amount of rehearsal time for each finalist may vary to accommodate the complexity of the orchestral accompaniment of individual works. Finalists will also be invited to meet the conductor prior to rehearsals to discuss their approach to their chosen work. Teachers are encouraged to attend rehearsals.

Adjudication
Preston Symphony Orchestra will supply the adjudicator(s) whose decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.

Prizes
The winner receives $500; other finalists receive $100.

An Audience Prize is chosen by ballot at the end of the concert.

Guidelines for applicants and uploading your YouTube video.
Applicants need to make a good quality video recording of their chosen work that we can use to assess their playing.

  • Recordings made on mobile phones or tablets will be acceptable.
  • The video should last not less than 5 minutes from the entry of the soloist and no more than 15 minutes in total.
  • Instruments must be tuned before the start of the video.
  • The instrument must be fully visible.
  • The recording should take place in a quiet room.
  • Applicants need to upload their video to YouTube and provide the link to it in the YCC application form. Guidance on how to upload to YouTube is shown below.
  • Applicants may play with or without an accompanist on the video. However, if selected for an in-person audition, all applicants must audition at this stage with an accompanist.
  • If selected for an in-person audition, applicants should play the same piece as they played in their video.

Instructions for uploading to YouTube
Applicants may choose either a Public (listed) or Unlisted upload. Unlisted videos are invisible in search results, subscriber feeds and user video tabs, but anyone with the link can see and share your video.

  1. Open YouTube and sign in with a Google account.
  2. Click the “create video” button as seen in the relevant image below
    • On a computer – click the “movie camera” icon in the top menu bar.
    • On an iPhone – click the “+” icon in the bottom menu bar.
  3. Follow the prompts.
  4. A link will be automatically created and displayed – but this will be a private link and you need to be able to share it with us.
  5. At the end of the upload process, you will be prompted to select the Visibility for your video. Depending on what device you are uploading from, and your Google account settings, the default visibility may be Private or Unlisted or Public.
    • Select either Unlisted or Public.
    • An unlisted video will not show up in searches, but a publicly listed video can be seen by anyone and discovered in search results, subscriber feeds and user video tabs.
  6. Make a copy of the link and paste it into your competition application. Of course, you can also share it with friends.

For more details about how to upload a video, see:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57407

If you need to change the visibility of your video after it has been published:

  1. Open up YouTube Studio with your Google account.
  2. Select “Your channel”
  3. Select “Manage videos” or “Your videos”
  4. Click on the video you want to share and click the Visibility box.

For more details about how to change the Visibility and other settings, see:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57404

This page was last updated on 21st Dec 2024

See the list of previous competition winners

Read about the 2024 Competition

Read about the 2023 Competition

Read about the 2022 Competition

Read about the 2018 Competition

Read about the 2019 Competition

The 2020 and 2021 competitions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.