Reno Youth Music Festival (est. 1975)

Why Everyone Should Participate

Easily the core student NNMTA event each year, the Reno Youth Music Festival provides the perfect opportunity for growth and experience for both students and teachers each year. It feels far more important than an everyday recital since it a judged event and since students can receive trophies and medals at an exciting “Command Performance”. However, it doesn’t carry the same amount of stress that is experienced in an actual competition in which there are 19 losers and only one “winner”. All students whose playing meets or exceeds a predefined standard "win" in this event! Both teachers and students are given an opportunity to learn from the adjudication comments written (or spoken) by competent judges, and since the judges never know the names (or even the ages!) of the performers, teachers can rest assured that ratings are always fair and unbiased.

What is it? When? Where? Who?

The festival is held each spring for all piano students in the area. It has always been held in the Department of Music at University of Nevada, Reno (typically rooms 110, 112 and the band room downstairs, as well as room 134 for teachers/judges). There is an "Upper Level" Festival in March that covers late intermediate through advanced levels (levels 5-12), and a "Lower Level" Festival in May that covers early and mid intermediate levels (levels 1-4). For exact dates and times, please refer to this year’s NNMTA calendar. Students are typically ready to enter the first level of the festival after three years of lessons. Beginning students who have only studied 1-2 years are usually not ready to enter the first level of the Lower Festival, but sometimes are in rare cases.

Levels

Students play two memorized pieces in levels 1 through 8, three memorized pieces in levels 9 and 10, and four memorized pieces in Medalist Levels 11 and 12. These levels are not to be confused with levels as defined by the Royal Conservatory of Music or by any other repertoire classification standards – the repertoire syllabus for the Reno Youth Music Festival was created from scratch (and continues to be maintained) by teachers in Northern Nevada. Festival revisions typically occur every five years; the last revision took place during the summer of 2009 as a series of eight two-hour meetings.

Syllabus

Teachers must obtain the Festival Syllabus so that they and their students can choose repertoire from the pre-approved list, which organizes piano repertoire and performance requirements into the 12 levels outlined above. Since there are over a thousand pieces in the syllabus, many teachers also use it as a general teaching guide, assigning repertoire to their students from this list all year long. More information on the syllabus is detailed below.

Test

Festival students are tested in areas of performance, listening, and theory. This comprehensive exam must receive a passing grade (70%) in order for the student to participate in the Festival held each Spring. The festival was designed this way in 1975 to encourage students to study more than just “how to move their fingers”, and this design continues to be honored today, much like many festivals run by various local music teachers association around the nation.

Teachers administer theory tests themselves to their students and record test grades on their students’ registration cards. Teachers should prepare their students for the test several weeks before the test occurs using the theory test study guide found in their syllabus.

When it comes time for students to take the test, teachers can download tests from the Members Only section of this website, or they can obtain hard copies from the NNMTA for a fee of $5 per test. Teachers must also obtain the audio ear training CD that goes with all the theory tests for the 15-question ear training portion of the test.

Session Formats: Competitive vs Non-Competitive

The Festival offers both competitive and non-competitive formats for participating students. The competitive format means that the student will be given a rating. The non-competitive format offers comments and critiques from the judges with no rating. The Upper Level portion of the Festival uses a master class format for the non-competitive students. Teachers new to the Festival are encouraged to enter their students in the non-competitive sessions as a way to inititiate into this venue.

"Competitive" students receive ratings from highly qualified adjudicators who are hired from the region. Those students who receive ratings of "Superior" and "Superior with Distinction" are asked to perform in the Festival's Command Performance recitals the following week, where they each perform one piece chosen by the judges and where they receive either a trophy or a medal after performing (students who achieve superior ratings in levels 1-10 receive a trophy, while superiors in levels 11-12 result in a medal).

No matter what rating a student receives, they receive very valuable written feedback from three different qualified judges (or for non-competitive students, verbal feedback from one judge), which by itself makes participation worthwhile for students who wish to improve their playing as well as for teachers who wish to improve their teaching.

Session formats: Traditional vs. Master Class

Students of the Upper Level Festival (levels 5-12) who enroll in “competitive” standing also have the option to register for the master class format rather than the traditional 3-judge format (students in levels 1-4 don’t have this option). Master class sessions only have one judge, and the student receives immediate verbal feedback from the judge. This carries the advantage of giving the judge more freedom to effectively communicate helpful suggestions to the student without being limited to paper and a pencil, while carrying the disadvantage of the student from benefitting from only one judge (instead of the Traditional session format’s three judges).

Master class session students also do not receive ratings of Superior, Excellent, Needs Attention, or Superior With Distinction like traditional session students receive. Instead, they are either invited to play in the Command Performance or they are not. Master class session students who play in the Command Performance are listed in the Command Performance program as receiving the rating of "Command Performance" and have no opportunity to distinguish themselves with a rating that would be equivalent to the Traditional session format’s prestigious rating of “Superior With Distinction”. The other disadvantage of this session format is that if the student’s teacher is unable to attend the session, they will not know what information was passed on to the student and, for example, may not be able to understand why their student was not invited to play in the Command Performance (except through the relaying of information of their student and their parents, of course). However, parents are allowed to videotape their own child’s performance in each session.

Students in levels 1-4 can expect to be scheduled in sessions with six total students (seven on rare occasions). Each session will be 45 minutes long, with 15 minutes of prep time between each session. Students in levels 5-8 can usually expect 4 or 5 in their sessions. Students in levels 9-12 can expect to be mixed together into sessions of anywhere from 2-3 students since levels 11 and 12 carry a 20- and 30-minute time limit.

Registration

The teacher fills out a Student Registration Card for each participating student as well as a single Teacher Registration Card for themselves. The student’s theory test score is written on the registration card. Parents must sign the student registration cards, and the teacher must turn in cards by the advertised registration deadline along with checks (written by parents made out to "NNMTA") to cover the registration fee.

Judges

For the Lower Level Festival in May, there are two hired judges, one in each room. These judges are usually not college piano professors since professors rarely teach students in the early intermediate levels of this festival. The rest of the judges are teachers of participating students who are given judging assignments in exchange for the privilege of their students’ participation in the festival (teachers are assigned a variety of tasks, including proctoring, judging and posting). Since most of the judges are not paid, this helps to keep the registration costs of the Lower Level Festival down.

For the Upper Level Festival in March, there are a total of seven hired judges: three in both traditional format rooms, and one in the master class room. These judges are commonly college piano professors who are comfortable dealing with late intermediate and advanced repertoire. More importantly, all of the judges are either out of town or don’t have any students of their own in the festival. This helps to guarantee unbiased ratings, especially when more is “at stake” for advanced students: while all students in levels 1-12 are equally happy to do well in the festival, advanced students take longer to learn their pieces. They can take sometimes as long as an entire year, which is fairly typical for levels 9-12 since their pieces are longer/more complex and since students in these levels must prepare 3 or 4 pieces instead of the 2 piece required for levels 1-8.

What Else To Expect

Practice rooms are usually available as long as a university representative provides the NNMTA with a key to the self-locking doors. Students can also show up 10-20 minutes before their session begins so they can get into their assigned room to try out the piano they will play on. Students should especially try out passages involving pedal since grand pianos on spider trolleys raise the piano another 1-2 inches off the ground, making pedaling feel significantly different for virtually all students (especially when the student’s piano is situated in thick carpeting).

When students arrive in their assigned room, at least one proctor should be there to greet students and tell them where to sit. Proctors will ask students what order they wish to play their pieces and will be in charge of announcing each piece before it is played. The main duty proctors have is to ensure the students are comfortable, the session runs on time and that judges are kept informed of how long they have to write (or speak) between each piece. Proctors will also assign a volunteer to be in charge of opening/closing the door between performers as well as assigning another volunteer to be in charge of delivering music to and from students and judges.

Students must bring their music to the festival for the judges. Students who forget their music will not receive a rating from the judges. Photocopies are not allowed. This festival strongly advocates that teachers teach their students more than just how to play well, but also how to respect, honor and support composers, editors and publishers by purchasing all of the music they learn. Teachers and students are frowned upon if the teacher simply lends out their own personal copies of the music to the students before each session so that judges are “fooled” into thinking the student owns the music (although it is not a bad idea for teachers to have copies of music present just in case one of their students forgets the music).

Each festival session is open to the public! Participants are welcome to invite plenty of people to come watch and support the performance. Once students finish performing and the judges leave, the proctor will present all students with their certificate of participation. Judges are required to write down each student’s rating before they leave the room so that no one judge influences the outcome of the session more than another judge. However, there is still some work that has to be done between each session: rating "assimilation" of the judging sheets, writing down command performance performers and pieces, and finally filling out the posting sheet. This process takes anywhere between 10-20 minutes, so once students leave, they’ll have to wait with great anticipation, excitement (and hopefully not fear!) for the festival posting person to post ratings on the hallway wall.

The overall rating is determined by the median rating of all three judges, except for the "Superior With Distinction" rating, which must be unanimous. Judges are not allowed to change their ratings once they enter the judge deliberation room, except for these two cases:

  • If all three judges rated the performer no lower than "Superior" and at least one judge rated the performer “Superior With Distinction”, the judge who awarded the Distinction rating is allowed to attempt to persuade the other judges to raise their ratings to a Distinction as well. This helps to partially counteract the difficulty of achieving a unanimous rating.
  • If all three judges rated the performer no higher than “Excellent” and at least one judge rated the performer “Needs Attention”, the judge who awarded the NA rating is allowed to attempt to persuade the other judges to lower their ratings to a NA as well. This helps to ensure that the Excellent rating doesn’t become a “catch all” category.

Students receiving "Superior" or higher automatically play in the Command Performance (the date and time of which should have been announced by the session’s proctor). Students will only play one piece of the judges' choice for the command performance. That piece will be circled on the posting sheet. Additionally, students with Superior ratings will see a number circled which represents which Command Performance they are assigned to. #1 would usually refer to 5:30pm, while #2 would refer to 7:00pm.

Materials needed for the Festival

  • Theory Study Guide for all levels
  • Optional Alternative Theory Guide for Levels 3A and up
  • NNMTA Syllabus (2009)

Teachers interested in entering students in Festival will have to request registration cards (one Teacher Card for the teacher and one Student Card for each student), the theory guide(s) (see link below), theory tests, and the syllabus. Registration cards take the place of “applications”. Newsletters will keep teachers informed of deadlines, festival information, and who to contact. For those who wish to obtain practice tests or the festival syllabus, Ruth Brewer (rbrewer100@aol.com or 825-8252) is currently the one who keeps these materials. Syllabi are $15 for members and $25 for non-members.

The Festival Syllabus contains information on the following:

  • Purposes of Festival
  • Divisions and Classifications for registration
  • Rules and Regulations
  • Eligibility
  • Fee structure per student
  • Description of the Silver and Gold Medallist Levels
  • Ratings criteria for adjudication
  • Repertoire listings and performance requirements for each level
  • Theory requirements for each level

Please note that teachers registering students in the Festival will commit to working Festival weekend, and will commit to helping out in the preparation of Festival. Teachers involved in Lower Level Festival must also come to the Proctor and Adjudication workshops, usually scheduled a few weeks before each festival date (please refer to the NNMTA calendar for dates, location and time). Students cannot enter Festival if the teacher cannot be actively involved.

The more experienced festival teachers will help the newer teachers into the preparation process of festival. The newer teachers will also be scheduled during Festival weekend to help as proctor assistants (new teachers will never be scheduled to do something on their own).

Failure by the teacher to help out during the Festival weekend will result in his/her students receiving comment only – with NO ratings. (Please take note of Rules 21 and 22 on page 4 of the Syllabus)

How should I present this event to my students?

How students perceive the festival is a result of a) how their teacher presents the opportunity to them, and b) how well their teacher prepares them for the event. If teachers ask their students if they wish to try out an event (especially if it is done with a lack of enthusiasm), students will almost always say “no”. But if a teacher assigns repertoire to the student all year long chosen from the festival syllabus, and the teacher announces they must start preparing for the theory test when the time comes (no option is given to say “no”), students have a funny way of happily following their instructor’s lead without asking questions, the same way members of a baseball team don’t blink an eye when their coach announces an extra baseball game has been scheduled for the end of the season (along with an extra practice).

If a teacher places too much emphasis on the importance of the rating, and the student falls short of those hopes, the student and teacher are likely to dislike this event. On the other hand, if teachers make sure their hard-working students know that they are proud of them no matter what the rating and that “the worst that can happen is that we go home with some valuable feedback from judges”, students are poised for success and are extremely likely to wish to participate again.

Additionally, teachers who had bad performance experience when they were younger sometimes unfortunately pass their fears onto their students. That is sometimes why some teachers report, “None of my students really have any interest in it,” while other teachers report, “Virtually all of my students opt to do the festival year after year, and in fact it is their favorite event of the year.” It is statistically impossible that one teacher would have 20 students who are all destined to dislike the event, while another teacher has 20 students who are all destined to love it. Again, it all depends on how each teacher presents the event to their students and how well they prepare students for the event.

Teachers and students need to also keep in mind that students need to be far more prepared for this festival than they would be for a more typical performance event such as a recital. Ratings criteria should be carefully reviewed by both teacher and student, and new teachers are recommended to ask colleagues with more experience to help them out with the expectations of the event. At the same time, mistakes are allowed! Students can still achieve a “Superior” performance even if they hit wrong notes and slip a bit, as long as the mistakes aren’t too numerous and recovery from them occurs quickly.

For applicable dates, please see the Master Calendar.



Click Here for maps to the UNR Music Department


Festival Rules and Guidelines 2009
Theory Test Study Guide - Concepts
Theory Test Study Guide - Vocabulary
Ratings Criteria
Festival Checklist for Teachers

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