It goes without saying that instrumental music students should challenge themselves by entering competitions as an adjunct to lessons, practice, rehearsals and solo/ensemble performances (though it’s worth saying again!) For almost three decades PIMF has been proud to provide an outstanding opportunity for young musicians to test their musical mettle.
This fall, we are presenting our Virtual Concerto Competition with a new and rewarding Youth Orchestra Challenge:
If at least 10 students from any youth orchestra submit an audition for our Fall 2025 Virtual Concerto Competition (deadline: December 31st, 2025), our adjudicators will select one student from the orchestra to receive a $1000 scholarship! Additionally, every student that enters from the orchestra will be awarded a $350 scholarship. Be SURE to note your youth orchestra on the submission form when submitting.
Gather the gang, support each other – and possibly earn a scholarship for that effort on top of the prizes you might earn individually for your musical chops as a Grand Prize and/or Division Winner. Go Team!
As for those prizes… they also include unique performance and networking opportunities. Winners of the PIMF Virtual Concerto Competition are invited to take part in the Winners Circle Concert held annually at the Philadelphia International Music Festival with several members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, a VIP event that’s live-streamed across the globe!
For Grand Prize Winners of the live competition, PIMF also arranges exciting performance opportunities. This weekend, for example, competition winner Mio Imai will be the featured soloist with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra at their 75th Anniversary Celebration Concerts. Mio will follow in the footsteps of the young violinist Michael Rabin, also age 15 at the time, who was featured in the ASO’s very first concert in 1951. How cool is that?! She will perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
Last year, another competition winner, Ella Xu performed in Denton, Texas with the U.S. Army Field Band, the premier touring musical representative for the United States Army, and competition winner Elli Choi was the featured soloist last November with the New York Session Symphony.
You get the idea. (You also might get some nice media attention, excellent street cred for music school applications, and more self-confidence for All The Things.)
Do it for yourself – and now, you and your youth orchestra friends can do it for each other!
Details on PIMF’s Fall 2025 Virtual Concerto Competition are available here. Submission Deadline: December 31, 2025.
