Chamber Music Society 4th Annual Young Musicians Innovation Challenge Instructions

Chamber Music Society 4th Annual Young Musicians Innovation Challenge

Product Information
The 4th Annual Young Musicians Innovation Challenge is a competition designed for high school musicians in the tri-state area and cities of Miami, FL, and Philadelphia, PA. Organized by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, this challenge offers students the opportunity to launch innovative chamber music projects with mentorship and financial support. Proposals for the competition are evaluated based on the criteria such as creativity, viability, sustainability, and how well they address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Eligible student teams are encouraged to apply through their school music departments.

The competition consists of two rounds conducted over a Zoom webinar. The Preliminary Round will be held on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, at 7:30 pm EST, while the Final Round, open to the general public with registration, will take place on Tuesday, February 6, 2023, at 7:30 pm EST. Teams selected for the Final Round will receive coaching sessions with mentors from the CMS Board and Global Council to refine their proposals. Up to 5 winning teams will be awarded a grant of up to $1000, which will be paid to their school or program. These teams will also receive four additional coaching sessions with CMS artist mentors to implement their proposed projects by Friday, May 24, 2024. To learn more about past winning projects, you can visit this link. The submission deadline for the competition is 5:00 pm EST on Friday, November 3, 2023. Applications must be submitted online through the provided form.

Product Usage Instructions
To participate in the Young Musicians Innovation Challenge, students must meet certain eligibility criteria:

• Attend a public or private school, home school consortium, or after-school music program in the tri-state area or the cities of Miami, FL, or Philadelphia, PA.
• Have a teacher from the department or after-school music program submit the application on behalf of the team and serve as the point of contact.
• Each school, homeschool consortium, or after-school program can submit a maximum of 3 teams, consisting of 2 to 5 students each.
• All students in an ensemble must attend the same school, the home-school consortium, or the after-school program at the time of application.
• Submitted projects must not have been previously selected as a winner or honorable mention in the Young Musicians Innovation Challenge.
• However, expanding upon a previously awarded project is allowed.
• The application must be submitted by the school music teacher.
• The program is not open to community music schools.

To apply for the challenge, follow these steps:

1. Click here to access the online application form.
2. Fill in the required information, including the school/homeschool consortium/after-school music program details, principal/homeschool consortium administrator name, teacher name and contact information, and student personnel names and grades for each team submitted. Indicate the team leader for each team.
3. You can save your progress and return to the form before submission by clicking “Save” at the bottom of each application page. An email will be sent to you with a link to return to your partially completed form.

The Young Musicians Innovation Challenge gives high school musicians the unique opportunity to compete for the chance to launch innovative chamber music projects with mentorship and financial support from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Proposals are adjudicated on creativity, viability, sustainability, and ways in which projects address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Eligible student teams are invited to apply through their school music departments. The competition will be held in two rounds via Zoom webinar:

• Preliminary Round at 7:30 pm EST Tuesday, December 5, 2023
• Final Round (open to the general public with registration) at 7:30 pm EST Tuesday, February 6, 2023.
• Teams selected for the Final Round will receive two coaching sessions with mentors from members of the CMS Board and Global Council to further refine their proposals in preparation for the Final Round.

Up to 5 teams will be selected as winners and will receive a grant in the amount of up to $1000 paid to the team’s school or program and four additional coaching sessions with CMS artist mentors to implement their proposed projects by Friday, May 24, 2024. For more information about past winning projects, click here. The submission deadline is 5:00 pm EST, Friday, November 3, 2023, via the online form linked below.

ELIGIBILITY
All students must attend a public or private school, home school consortium, or after-school music programs (where schools do not have a full-time music program) in the tri-state area or the cities of Miami, FL or Philadelphia, PA to be eligible for the competition. Applications must be submitted by a teacher from the department or after-school music program on behalf of the team who agrees to serve as the point of contact for the team. Each school, homeschool consortium, or after-school program may submit no more than 3 teams of 2 to 5 students for consideration. To best support chamber music instruction in school music programs, the Young Musicians Innovation Challenge is only for teams meeting the following guidelines:

• All students in the ensemble must attend the same school, home-school consortium, or after-school program at the time of application
• Submitted projects must not have been selected as a winner or for an honorable mention to a previous round of the Young Musicians Innovation Challenge.
• Submissions which expand upon a previously awarded project are permissible
• The application must be submitted by the school music teacher on behalf of their students
• The program is not open to community music schools

PROJECT PITCH VIDEO
Each project application should include a “pitch” video no longer than 2 minutes in duration describing the project, how it will contribute to the world of chamber music, and how the project will be implemented if selected for support. The video should include all members of the team speaking to these points with each member’s role in the project clearly identified. Videos should be uploaded to YouTube as an “unlisted video” via a Gmail or YouTube account (available for free). The link to the video should be provided in the online application form detailed below. Instructions on how to upload a video to YouTube may be found here. Instructions on changing an uploaded video’s privacy setting to “unlisted” may be found here.

PROJECT SUMMARY AND BUDGET
Each project application must include a written short description, impact summary, projected timeline, and budget (including secured sources of funding if the total project budget exceeds $1000) as indicated in the application form below. Projects may either end by Friday, May 24, 2024 (i.e. a chamber music concert initiative) or may be launched by May 24, 2024, and continue as a recurring project (i.e. an annual concert series or a podcast). Projects which propose to extend beyond Friday, May 24, 2024, should indicate how funding will be secured to sustain the project beyond that date in the project description.

APPLICATION

Click here to access the online application form. The form will allow you to save your progress and return to the form before submission. An email will be sent to you with a link to return to your partially completed form once you click “Save” at the bottom of each application page. The application requests the following information:

• School/homeschool consortium/after-school music program name, address, phone
• Principal/homeschool consortium administrator name
• Teacher name, phone, email address
• Student personnel names and grades for each team submitted and indicate the team leader for each team
• To assist us in the application process, please name the YouTube video with the following format

School Name_Project Title
Example: Pleasantville_A_New_Approach_to_Repertoire_Guides If submitting more than one project, please complete a separate online form for each project (you will be able to make multiple submissions on the online form with a single e-mail address).

PRELIMINARY ROUND
Each team selected for the Preliminary Round Zoom webinar will be asked to present their projects for the Preliminary Round Panel. At this round, the original video submission for each team will be screened for the Panel, and members of the team will be asked questions about their projects. Each team must designate a team leader who will be responsible for making sure team members join the webinar on time, who will serve as spokespersons for the team, and defer to other team members as needed when answering questions from the panel. Teachers, families, and students from their schools may attend the Preliminary Round webinar.

COACHING SESSIONS
Each team selected for the Final Round will receive two, one-hour coaching sessions via Zoom with a mentor from the CMS Board and Global Council of CMS at a time convenient for everyone. Each team will be required to submit a revised “pitch” video reflecting the input from the coaching session to be screened during the Final Round Panel.

FINAL ROUND
The Final Round will be held as a Zoom webinar open to the general public with registration. Each team selected for the Final Round will have their second video screened for the Panel and answer questions. Participating teams will be notified following the Final Round of the results of the Panel’s decisions.

AWARDS
Up to 5 winning teams will be selected and will each receive a grant paid to their school/after-school program up to $1000 and receive 4 coaching sessions via Zoom with a CMS artist mentor to implement their projects. Each awarded team will be asked to complete a Project Report following the completion/launch of each awarded project describing how the project’s stated goals were achieved, accompanied by an expenditure report with supporting receipts.

Grants will be paid to the school or program of winning teams in the form of a reimbursement for expenses incurred up to May 24, 2024, upon submission of the project report and accompanying receipts. If expenses are incurred before the launch/completion of the project, the school or program of the winning team is asked to budget for those expenses to be later reimbursed by CMS.
Any winning team making changes to their proposed project or budget during the implementation of their project must receive prior approval from CMS.

CREDITS AND PERMISSIONS

All selected teams will be asked to credit CMS in any publicity materials related to their projects and permit CMS to use any content generated from the project for promotional purposes. Teams and participating Schools will be permitted to share their projects or content generated from the projects with other parties.

IMPORTANT DATES

selection process for the Preliminary Round
Tuesday, December 5, 2023, 7:30 PM EST| Preliminary Round (via Zoom Webinar)
December-January 2024| Coaching sessions with each team selected for the Final Round (via Zoom)
Friday, January 29, 2024, 5:00 PM EST| Deadline for Team Finalists to submit their revised pitch videos
Tuesday, February 6, 2024, 7:30 PM EST| Final Round (via Zoom webinar – open to the public with registration)
February – May 2024| Coaching sessions for awarded teams (via Zoom)
Friday, May 24, 2024| Deadline for awarded teams to complete projects, submit project report and receipts for reimbursement

QUESTIONS? Contact: Matthew Tommasini
Director of Education and Community Engagement Phone: 212-875-5793 mtommasini@chambermusicsociety.org

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