ELEVATING YOUNG MUSICIANS WITH INSPIRATION, CONNECTIONS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT
100 Years Awarding Student Scholarships
Exciting Changes in 2023!
- There is no cost to apply.
- A second Guitar division will be added:
Guitar II – Grades 7-12
Guitar III – College Freshman – Age 28 - A 3rd prize award of $500 will be added in all categories.
- The scholarship award for college and graduate students in all instrument/voice categories will increase from $2000 to $2500 for 1st place and from $1500 to $1750 for 2nd place.
- The Preliminary round will continue to be virtual while Finals will be in person with a nationally recognized judge. All finalists will have the opportunity to participate in a live session following their category/division’s auditions to receive additional education and feedback from their judge.
All finals performances are open to the public
2023 Competition Dates
Applications Open: September 19, 2022
Application Deadline: January 15, 2023
Repertoire Change Deadline: February 5, 2023
Preliminaries Video Submission Deadline: February 12, 2023
Finalists Emailed: March 14, 2023
In-Person Finals: March 25 & 26, Landmark Center
March 25- Guitar, Piano, and Voice
March 26- Brass & Woodwinds and Strings
Musicians on the Rise Winners Recital: April 15, 2023
1:00 PM
2023 Finals Judges
Alexi Kenney (Strings)
The recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2020 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, violinist Alexi Kenney is building a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras in the USA and abroad, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time.
In recent seasons, Alexi has performed as soloist with the Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and in a play-conduct role as guest leader of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and performs chamber music at numerous festivals including [email protected], Ravinia, and Bridgehampton on tour with Musicians from Marlboro and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Alexi performed in Schubert Club’s International Artist Series in December 2022 alongside harpist Bridget Kibbey.
Bernhard Scully (Brass & Winds)
Bernhard Scully is currently the horn player of The Canadian Brass and the Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Illinois. He is the Artistic Director of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp, one of the premiere learning centers for horn in the world. Formerly, he was principal horn of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra where he was featured often as a soloist. He is on faculty at the Brevard Music Festival, and performs as principal horn of the Brevard Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. Among his many awards are top honors at numerous competitions, most notably being the first classical brass player to win a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians. As the Horn player of Canadian Brass, Bernhard annually tours the world over, is featured on many CD’s and videos, and performs in front of orchestras that have included the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony. He collaborates often with many great North American Orchestras including performing as guest principal horn with the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony and the Violon du Roy of Quebec City; and as a section member of the Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra. As a soloist, Bernhard has numerous albums to his credit, most recently releasing “Windows in Time: Chamber Music for Horn and Strings of Mozart and Schuller” which includes the premiere recording of Gunther Schuller’s “Quintet for Horn and Strings (2009)” and Mozart’s “Quintet for Horn and Strings K.407”, alongside the Jupiter Quartet.
Dawn Upshaw (Voice)
Joining a rare natural warmth with a fierce commitment to the transforming communicative power of music, soprano Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. Her ability to reach to the heart of music and text has earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and the awards and distinctions accorded to only the most distinguished of artists. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
A five-time Grammy Award winner, Dawn Upshaw is featured on more than 50 recordings, including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Gorecki for Nonesuch Records. Her discography also includes full-length opera recordings of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro; Messiaen’s St. Francois d’Assise; Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; John Adams’s El Niño; two volumes of Canteloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne,” a dozen recital recordings, and an acclaimed three-disc series of Osvaldo Golijov’s music for Deutsche Grammophon. She received the 2014 Best Classical Vocal Solo Grammy for Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks on the ArtistShare Label.
Upshaw appeared in Schubert Club’s late Debut Series in 1987, as well as our International Artist Series in 1989.
Pedja Mužijević (Piano)
Pianist and curator Pedja Mužijević has defined his career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with artists and ensembles. He has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica in Montevideo, Residentie Orkest in The Hague, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica and Shinsei Nihon Orchestra in Tokyo. Pedja has played solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall, 92Y and The Frick Collection in New York, Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center, Dumbarton Oaks, Phillips Collection and National Gallery in Washington, DC, Casals Hall and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. His Carnegie Hall concerto debut playing Mozart Concerto K. 503 with Oberlin Symphony and Robert Spano was recorded live and has been released on the Oberlin Music label.
Pedja’s interdisciplinary projects include touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project throughout the United States, South America, Europe and Asia and with Simon Keenlyside in Trisha Brown’s staged version of Schubert’s Winterreise at Lincoln Center in New York, Barbican in London, La Monnaie in Brussels, Opera National de Paris, as well as Holland, Lucerne and Melbourne festivals. Combining his two passions, music and food, Pedja performed works by Ravel and Mussorgsky followed by a multi-course dinner prepared by chef David Bouley in his Test Kitchen in New York.
Pedja is the artistic administrator at Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York and artistic advisor at Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana, where he curates concerts, as well as film shoots for dozens of musicians. He also directs Concert in 21st Century residency at the Banff Centre, where he explores concert as a format and the ways it can be more relevant today.
Pedja featured in Schubert Club’s popular Accordo series in the spring of 2021.
Jason Vieaux (Guitar)
Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is described by NPR as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation”. In appearances from New York’s Lincoln Center to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Seoul Arts Center, Jason Vieaux has cemented his reputation as an artist of brilliance and uncompromised mastery. Cited for his “eloquent and vibrant performances” on disc (Gramophone Magazine) he is hailed as “virtuosic, flamboyant, dashing and, sometimes ineffably lyrical” (New York Times) on stage.
Sought-after for his extensive concerto repertoire, Vieaux has performed with a long list of orchestras including Cleveland, Toronto, St. Louis, Houston, Columbus, and has made premiere recordings with the Nashville Symphony (Leshnoff Concerto) and the Norrköping Symphony (Beal Six Sixteen). He has worked with renowned conductors including Giancarlo Guerrero, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, and David Robertson. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres from Jeff Beal, Avner Dorman, Vivian Fung, Pierre Jalbert, Jonathan Leshnoff, David Ludwig, Mark Mancina, and Dan Visconti, among many others.
More About the Competition
The Bruce P. Carlson Student Scholarship Competition, held each spring, awards a total of over $70,000 annually to young musicians to be used for further musical education.
The competition began in 1922, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Schubert Club. It started modestly with three winners representing the categories of voice, violin, and piano. The competition has since grown to fifteen different categories with three cash prizes awarded for each category to be used for further musical education. The winners of each category are also invited to perform in the annual Winners Recital, Musicians on the Rise.
The Competition is named in memory of Bruce P. Carlson, Executive Director of Schubert Club from 1968 to 2006.
Applicants must be a resident or enrolled in a learning institution within the 5-state region (MN, WI, SD, ND or IA).
“The Competition has been an indispensable source for musical growth, and a proving ground where I could test my skill and artistry. I feel like I’ve grown up as a musician through the Schubert Club Competition, and it is an opportunity for which I am immensely grateful.”
– Liam Ainslie Mayo, 2017 Piano Winner