The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

The Preparatory holds five competitions per year, each with a unique focus to provide different learning experiences for developing musicians. Only students taking private lessons through the Preparatory are eligible to participate in competitions.

Honors Competitions

The bi-annual Honors Competition offers students the opportunity to perform in a recital of the highest caliber. Held at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters, these events are reserved for the most advanced students performing advanced repertoire. Judges select 6-8 winners based on overall performance and the need to create a well balanced recital program.

Honors Recitals, held in the beautifully renovated Griswold Hall, are two of the Preparatory's more public events. In addition to our faculty and administration, friends and supporters of the institute are invited to listen as the Preparatory presents its' "best of the best".

Part Recital Competition

Encompassing three age categories (12 and under, 13-18, and 19 and older), the Part Recital Competition invites accomplished musicians to audition for a recital that is different from any of the Preparatory's other recitals. Interested and qualified students who have prepared 15 to 20 minutes of music (or "part" of a recital) are entered by their teacher to audition for a panel of noted musicians and educators from the Baltimore/Washington area. Three or four winners are selected to perform on a recital which is scheduled on a Sunday evening in late April or early May.

What seperates this from other recitals is that it is the welcome concert for Peabody's weekly Roads Scholar Program. A large, receptive audience of visitors from around the country will get their first taste of Peabody from this recital. Past audiences have remarked that this recital was the highlight of their trip to Baltimore.

Preparatory String Ensemble (PSE) Competition.

The Preparatory String Ensemble hosts an annual competition to feature a young string student in a solo performance with the ensemble. Students are nominated by their teachers for the competition which takes place in February for a panel of Preparatory string faculty. Specific repertoire for each instrument is determined in early fall. The winner performs with the String Ensemble during its Spring Concert.

Junior Concerto Competition

Held late in the fall semester, the Junior Concerto Competition provides intermediate and advanced students, who are aged 14 and under, the opportunity to compete for a solo performance with the Preparatory's Young Artists Orchestra. One student is chosen to rehearse and play one movement of a Baroque concerto on the orchestra's spring concert. The concert is shared with the String Ensemble with whom the winner of the PSE Competition plays.

Concerto Competition

This event offers advanced string, wind and piano students, aged 18 and under and enrolled in private lessons through the Preparatory, the opportunity to audition for the chance to perform an entire concerto with the Peabody Youth Orchestra. The competition is held in January and the performance takes place on the orchestra's spring concert in May.