Music Education Scholarships
Show Off Your Talents: Go Head to Head with the Best in Large or Small Music Programs
You want to talk about competitive. Depending on how you approach your music you may be looking to go head-to-head with the best young musicians on the planet. But in arenas such as this, scholarship dollars are biggest.
You'll figure out in looking around that even otherwise obscure music programs want students to brag about. They take their programs very seriously and in many cases offer partial to full scholarships.
Music Foundation Scholarships
Young Musicians Foundation is one of the biggies we were talking about. Musicians from 10 to 25 may bring their talent to the stage in competition for lucrative scholarships. Applicants for the competition/scholarship program must hail from Southern California and be unquestionably top-notch; no American Idol rejects allowed.
Music students on the brink of completing collegiate studies here in America should be aware of the American Berlin Opera Foundation Scholarships. These prestigious awards are given to outstanding operatic performers. Scholarships of up to $15,000 plus travel stipends are given to those chosen to study with the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
The BMI Music Foundation is instrumental in supporting programs that buoy up the education and talent of tomorrow's musicians and musicologists:
- In some cases Music scholarships are not awarded for vocals or instruments at all, but for disciplines such as research and academia. Such are the Woody Guthrie Fellowships. These awards are given to graduate students whose research in a music field includes the work of Woody Guthrie, one of America's most influential folksingers and songwriters.
- Women's Music Commission awards $5,000 to a winning female composer.
- Music students studying in the U.S. or Puerto Rico may be able to earn $5,000 through the peermusic Latin Scholarship. Awards are given to an outstanding piece of Latin music composed by a student.
- The Charlie Parker Jazz Scholarship almost speaks for itself. Jazz musicians with the best new piece may earn scholarship up to $3500 and an opportunity to perform.
ASCAP Music Foundation sponsors and administers a boatload of scholarships. Among them:
- The ASCAP Foundation Charlotte V. Bergen Scholarship is given to a student composer who works in the classical music vein.
- ASCAP Foundation Louis Armstrong Jazz Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding jazz student enrolled in the music program at UCLA.
- ASCAP Foundation John Denver Music Camp Scholarship provides talented, disadvantaged student musicians a chance to go to a prestigious summer music camp.
If you're interested in cultural music you might like to hear of the Liederkranz Foundation Scholarships. The organization is devoted to its German heritage and music. Scholarships are awarded annually to outstanding German-style vocalists.
College Music Scholarships
Undergraduate Scholarships in Music through the University of South Carolina may supply a talented student with a full tuition. As long as a student maintains average GPAs academics are not part of the selection process, and neither is a student's financial status. USC music scholarships are awarded purely based on talent and recommendation.
The Department of Music and Theater at the University of Iowa holds its breath too, for the best talent in vocals and instrumentation. Students eager to win a place in the program as well as a scholarship may audition each February for the competitive awards. Partial to full scholarships are available and are based on talent. Other scholarships are awarded through the larger College of Liberal Arts and Sciences where criteria such as academic merit and financial need may be considered.
The Aspen Music Festival and School is one of the most renowned programs in the country. Music students may study in areas of music composition, ensemble, and opera, as well as in various instrument categories such as string, percussion and wind. Students in the program have access to full and partial scholarships. According to the school nearly three quarters of the students qualify for monetary assistance. Select students may also receive fellowships.
