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Each fall, usually in early November, the Music Department holds a competition to select one student soloist to appear with the Orchestra later in the academic year.  In some cases, depending on the Orchestra’s overall programming considerations, two winners may be featured.

To be eligible for the concerto competition, the participant must be:

• a full-time student at one of the Claremont Colleges, beyond the freshman year
• taking lessons for credit through the Pomona Music Department on the instrument (or voice) on which they are competing – for example, if someone plays both violin and piano and wants to enter as a pianist, they must be taking piano lessons
• a regular member in an appropriate Pomona Music Department curricular ensemble, although not necessarily on the same instrument as for the competition performance – for example, a pianist could satisfy their ensemble eligibility requirement by singing in the Choir

Students enter the concerto competition by emailing Professor Eric Lindholm, the orchestra conductor.  Additional rules and considerations:

• Repertoire must be approved by the conductor.  The minimum duration is ten minutes.  Vocalists may assemble a suite of arias if no individual selection meets the length requirement.
• An accompanist will be provided, and a modest amount of rehearsal time in the competition space will be available.
• The competition is open to friends and family of the performers, but it is not considered a public event.
• Memorization is not required, but the judges may, at their discretion, consider memorization to be an aspect of stage presence.
• Generally, full pieces are expected, but a student may enter with a single movement if that movement is artistically viable on its own.
• The participant must, for the competition, perform the entire piece that would potentially be performed with the orchestra – for example, if the student aspires to perform all three movements of a concerto, then all three movements must be prepared and performed for the competition.
• If selected as a winner, the student must continue their lessons and their ensemble participation during the semester of the performance.

Previous Winners