A key part of our Mission, for the last 30 years Musicfest has identified, supported, and promoted numerous aspiring Young Musicians from around the Valley of the Sun and Tucson area.
Through our highly-regarded Competitions, each year Musicfest supports Young Musicians with commentary, praise, and critique from some of the area’s finest musicians. Standout participants earn prizes and performance opportunities through our Young Musicians Concerts in the MIM Music Theater. These extraordinary students are also invited to Masterclasses and Private Lessons with some of our featured Festival Performers. As students transition their studies to the collegiate level, Musicfest proudly sponsors two first-year and four continuing students pursuing undergraduate studies through the Musicfest Scholarship Program.
Select from the tabs on the left to find out more!
Young Musicians CompetitionsThe Young Musicians Competition recognizes the outstanding talents of young musicians, provides a space where young competitors can perform for and receive evaluations from respected judges, and distributes monetary awards to winners who may also earn opportunities to perform as part of the Arizona Musicfest concert series.
Click below for competition details, rules, and applications:
Arizona Musicfest ScholarshipSince 2011, the Arizona Musicfest Scholarship Program has generously awarded over ninety thousand dollars to Arizona students pursuing college degrees in music.
Arizona Musicfest Scholarship recipients are currently pursuing or have recently earned degrees from the following distinguished institutions:The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory of Music, The Cleveland Institute of Music, USC’s Thornton School of Music, Biola University, Arizona State University, The Eastman School of Music, Vanderbilt University, and Curtis Institute of Music.
Learn about past recipients and find application information through the link below!
During the 2022-2023 season, Arizona Musicfest will produce a series of three Young Musicians Concerts at the MIM Music Theater in Phoenix. Join us and experience virtuosity from the start! Follow the links below to purchase tickets:
Join our introduction to West-African Handdrumming!
Free drum circles led by Frank Thompson
New to the uke? Start here!
Guitar Strummers at AZ Musicfest will assist beginner to intermediate players in growing their foundational skills to expressively play the guitar in group or personal leisure settings. The following skills will be developed: chord memorization, chord transitions, finger dexterity, accuracy and quality of chord sound, strumming patterns and fingerpicking accompaniment styles. Participants will receive instructor individual support on personal project songs as well as given ample opportunity to play with the other players in class.
Grow your uke chops with Arizona Musicfest!
Listen Up: Seminars on Music is a weekly gathering of music lovers every Wednesday morning, hosted by AZMF’s Resident Artist, Josh Condon. Each session combines music history, analysis, active listening, and discussion, designed to enhance your listening experience and overall music appreciation. Listen Up covers all genres, emphasizing our common humanity across all musical styles! Coffee and refreshments provided. Here at Music Alive! we spend lots of time exploring the music of the past - and for good reason! But what about the present? Despite what the contemporary pop stations would have you believe, there is A LOT of exciting, musically interesting and creative work being made out there! Not just in America, but around the world. Join us for our first venture into BREAKING BOUNDARIES, a mini-series that's part of LISTEN UP! We'll explore new artists that you've most likely never heard of, but are sure to become a new favorite. These artists are pioneering new avenues for music creation in the 21st century, building upon the work of the past, and unleashing new creative energies for the future. As our musical world becomes more and more global through the internet, we'll explore how this dynamic has changed the music industry forever, and discuss what new musical genres are being birthed now in 2024!
Our Musical Theatre Matinee series features guest lectures from some of the Valley’s foremost experts in musical theatre, and include live performances by outstanding local singers and dancers! Join Toby Yatso, veteran musical theater actor and Clinical Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at Arizona State University, as he takes us through an exploration on what the singing actor must do to effectively communicate. Toby will be joined by rising stars Connor Dunning, Kambria Cook, and Chan Wannapat. Together, they will break down the techniques of intention, obstacle, journey, and more to demonstrate all that goes into creating a great musical theatre performance. This event is generously sponsored by Bob and Charlotte Otto.
Dr. Dan Puccio takes an in-depth look at the lives and careers of the singer-songwriters whose catalogs are featured in this year's concert season! We’ll get to hear some of the inside stories and legends surrounding Neil Diamond, America, Billy Joel, Elton John, and Lyle Lovett, along with guided listening example to some of their greatest songs. Along the way, we’ll try to answer some of the great Rock & Roll mysteries like “Why didn’t they name the horse?”, “Was Billy Joel really that angry as a young man?”, and “Can you really ride a pony on a boat?” (Honestly, it depends on the size of the boat, and how rough the seas are.) One of the greatest pianists in Rock history, Billy Joel’s career as a singer songwriter has spanned nearly seven decades—starting in the mid 1960’s. Few artists have had the longevity and consistency of hits, ranging from his most famous hits of the 1970’s like “She’s Always A Woman”, “Only the Good Die Young”, “My Life”, and the legendary title track from his 1973 album Piano Man, to his blockbuster songs of the 1980’s including “The Longest Time”, “You May Be Right”. “Tell Her About It”, and “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. We’ll discuss his record number of performances at Madison Square Garden—a friendly competition that he has going with the band Phish, and the financial challenges that he faced during the mid 1980’s, too. Since it’s early, you can hold off on your bottle of red, or bottle of white, but join in the fun to find out just who is the “Uptown Girl”, and if his “Famous Last Words” were indeed the last words he would ever write.
