Deadline to receive submissions: February 1st

Junior Composers Chair: Lisa Casia

JUNIOR COMPOSERS COMPETITION RULES

ELIGIBILITY:

Entrants must be United States citizens and members in good standing of NFMC, either as a Junior Club/Junior Associate Group member or as an Individual Junior Member. A teacher need not be a member of NJFMC, but the student must then join the national NFMC as an Individual Junior Member before or at the time of registering for the contest. This contest starts at the state level. Teachers submitting for their students through NJ must also be a current member of the NJ Chapter with dues paid up to date.  National Individual student Junior Members submitting through NJ must also reside in NJ in order to participate and have their current membership dues up to date.

TYPE OF ENTRY: Compositions may be for keyboard, voice, other instruments, or any combination.

AGE CLASSIFICATIONS: Student age as of March 1 of the current year determines the class.

• Junior Class I ages 9 and under
• Junior Class II ages 10 - 12
• Junior Class III ages 13 - 15
• Junior Class IV ages 16 - 18

PROCESS FOR SUBMISSION:

To enter this contest, four items are necessary:

1. National Application form JR7-2 filled out and signed in PDF format
2. Composition score in PDF format
3. Audio Recording of student composition in MP3 format
4. Payment of state and national fees, including any membership fees needed.   *There is an additional $25 charge for all materials not received by February 1st.

• Download the current National Registration form JR 7-2 in printable PDF format. Fill in your information, save to your computer, print, obtain all the signatures and scan as a PDF. The application form must be signed before being submitted in the online registration process. 
• Composition scores may be produced and notated via a notation software program or hand notated. They must have the title, composer’s name, age as of February 1, 2022, and class in the upper right corner of each sheet of the composition. If there are lyrics, the name of the lyricist must appear in the upper left corner. In order to get credit for a vocal line as an additional instrument, students must notate a melody for the singer, not merely write lyrics between the staves of a piano score. The scores must then be converted or scanned to PDF and submitted in that format online at the NFMC registration portal. ***Label the PDF file in this manner: Class #, Last name, first name, title of composition. For example: 4, Doe, John, My Composition Name.
• Recording: The composition must be digitally recorded in MP3 format only. ***Label these recordings in the same manner as the score: Class #, Last name, first name, title of composition.
• Fees to participate in the contest are determined by the state and are payable online during the registration process at the NFMC website. Contact our NJ Junior Composers Chair for the current NJ state fee.  Individual Junior Members must also pay a membership fee of $13 on the national NFMC website. 
• Using the NFMC online registration portal submit, by the state’s deadline, the online application, the composition score in PDF format, and the MP3 digital file. In addition, fees must be paid while at the registration portal.

CONTEST TIME FRAME:

Students will receive the state judge ratings on or around March 15. The state judge will include comments about the composition that are meant to help the students advance in their composing skills. The state judge will choose two entries from each age class to progress to the regional level by March 1. At the regional level, no comments from the regional judge are given, only selection of student winners occurs. The top two students in each of classes I and II and three students in each of classes III and IV will be given cash awards of $100 and their entries will be sent to the national level on April 1. The national judge will complete his/her work by May 1 and will determine winners with applicable cash awards. Only rankings, not comments, will be given by the national judge.

***Ties are not permitted at any level of the contest.

FEDERATION CUP AWARDS:

Although the Junior Composers Contest is no longer a part of Junior Festival, students may work towards Federation Cups in the same manner as entrants in Festival.

Note to Teachers: Contact your state Festival Cup chair, Debbra Nemeth Taryby, for further information about the award of cups.

Points awarded for the Junior Composers Contest are:

• Superior 8 points for 2 or more instruments; 7 points for 1 instrument
• Excellent 6 points
• Satisfactory 5 points