One of the ways teachers can motivate students to be involved with collaborative music making is to participate in festivals or competitions. Many activities exist in local, state and educational organizations, and today we picked four representatives to describe their programs in detail. We're

Carleen Graff: Piano Monster Concerts have evolved for me at Plymouth State University over the past 25 years. I hosted our first monster concert with 50 pianists in 1982, and Fred Kern was our conductor. Eventually, these concerts brought more than 250 high school and adult students and their teachers to campus. Teachers were telling me they believed their students were continuing piano study longer just so they could attend these Monster Concerts. We hosted our 14th Biennial Concert on May 1, 2008, with Joyce Grill conducting.

Thinking that the same type of excitement would work with young students and their teachers, I developed the first Junior Piano Monster Festival in the summer of 1993 with 67 campers and Ginger Hwalek conducting. This four-day festival is for students completing grades 5, 6, 7 and 8. Several factors contributed to its birth: 1) college piano majors desired additional experience working with piano students through group teaching and rehearsal techniques; 2) teachers throughout the New England region indicated a need for ensemble and intensive experiences for their young piano students; 3) young students wanted to experience music with their peers; 4) this was an indirect means of recruitment for the university, the music department and the piano area (with the possibility of later adding a senior camp) and 5) my desire was to create and direct a unique piano camp in the country.

The Senior Piano Festival was developed in the summer of 1997 for students completing grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. The main factor that contributed to its creation was requests of former junior campers desiring a continuation of their experiences. Both camps are sponsored by the Plymouth State University Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance.

The camps are based primarily on an ensemble concept with all activities designed to provide maximum interactive participation, because most students study piano for years, never interacting with other musicians in a collaborative experience. Everything these young pianists do at our camps is in an ensemble or group setting. They learn how to be part of a group, how to respond to a conductor and how to listen to others. They quickly learn the importance of counting, too.

Students in the camps rehearse previously assigned ensemble music in small and concert groups and perform a final concert under a conductor on the fourth day. Each student chooses music from one of four levels at the junior camp and one of three levels at the senior camp. We perform works written primarily for piano duet and use 10 pianos with up to 20 students in each group. The students learn this music with their piano teacher prior to camp, and the piano teacher signs the application, which serves as their recommendation.

In addition, the junior campers participate in a Handbell Choir or a Percussion Ensemble and all sing in the Festival Chorus. Each student chooses music specialty classes according to their interest: jazz piano, music software notation, sequencing, guitar, harpsichord, organ, master classes, composition, piano pedagogy/literature, memorization, technique, conducting and digital keyboard orchestra.

In the beginning we had musicianship classes for the junior campers, where they worked on theory and sight-reading skills, often using Theory Olympics as an incentive. For the past couple years we've had team challenges in theory, music history and piano technique. On the first day of camp each student receives a different colored wristband to wear indicating which team they're representing. Many of the challenges or games have been created by my pedagogy students. Last year the seven teams were named after classical composers--team CPE Bach was the winner!

The junior campers also choose two evening activity classes. Some of their choices have been: improvisation; intro to theater; stage make up; modern dance; creative writing; voice class; foreign languages that have included French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Polish and Russian; and art class, where they've learned calligraphy and made origami pen and pencil holders in the shape of pianos and musical flower pots.

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The students stay in college residence halls with counselors. My staff is drawn primarily from PSU students and alumni who are now active teachers throughout New England and the east, PSU faculty and staff, and nationally known piano pedagogues and performers; some have been with the camp since its inception. These professionals serve as role models for the undergraduate students, and this interaction helps them relate to their future plans and careers, it's an aspect that cannot be taught in the classroom.

The camps are just as much about the current PSU students as the experience they give to young, upcoming musicians and future audience members. More information can be found at www.plymouth.edu/mtd/music/piano_ programs/monster.html

Kevin Chance: Each spring, the Alabama MTA holds an annual pre-college chamber music competition, which is open to groups of three or more collaborators. To encourage participation, the event is scheduled concurrently with our state string and piano auditions. All students within each group must be studying with an MTNA member in good standing, and we offer two categories of competition: Lower Chamber Music and Upper Chamber Music. The Lower Chamber Music category is open to groups whose oldest member is of middle school age, and the Upper Chamber Music Category is available to groups whose oldest member is of high school age. Each group is required to perform one movement from the chamber repertoire, and we require that an original score be presented to the judge. In addition to the chamber music performance, each member of the group must successfully complete the state technique and theory exam on their respective instrument.

To organize the competition, we provide the registration forms online, and examples can be found at www.almta.org/aud_forms.htm. We secure judges from outside the state, and we assign one judge to each category. The judge provides a written critique of each ensemble, and each group receives a rating of Outstanding, Excellent, Good or Needs Improvement. Additionally, each judge may select the most outstanding ensembles as winners or honorable mentions. Winning groups are invited to perform on recitals or master classes at the AMTA State Conference in June, and we list the names of all winners and honorable mentions along with their coaches in the program booklet at the state conference.

For participants in these auditions, one of the benefits is a clear performance goal and an opportunity for feed back and recognition outside the private studio setting. Additionally, the competition provides each group an opportunity to build a sense of community and identity through selecting a name for their ensemble. For our teachers, the competition provides an opportunity for professional development by encouraging interaction with other teachers within their communities and through the feedback provided by the judge at the audition.

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Diane Delk: I have been involved with two different ensemble events: the Ensembles of Texas/American Composers and the Texas Chamber Music Festival. The first involves nearly 6,000 people at our June conventions, the majority of whom are students and families who are participating in TMTA non-competitive ensembles. Planning starts a year in advance when the local ensemble chair chooses repertoire for the groups and decides which repertoire is appropriate for the different ages. All of the local chairs submit the repertoire to the state coordinator, who strives for a variety of music so the numerous groups don't play the same piece.

Texas now has five concerts, called Texas/American Ensemble Programs, that fill a convention ballroom. The age range is grades one through eight. In addition, three high school concerts are prepared by students in grades eight through 12. Some post-12th-grade students often continue to participate simply because they don't want to give up this ensemble experience.

Different local chapters organize their ensembles in different ways. One example is that a local association holds an Ensemble Day where students audition, but not in a competitive way. The students all come on this day to play their piece, meet their conductor and choose and order their costumes. Some costumes are quite conservative, but some groups come in very festive costumes; one group dressed up like parts of a train including a conductor and cows, and used whistles as they came on stage.

The stage is filled with 12 to 15 grand pianos, and the enthusiasm is so high the ensembles really do compete with team sports for kids' attention. Students usually receive tangible awards, varying by the local association and including pins, bars, trophies, badges, multi-year awards and sometimes monetary awards.

The teachers in Texas have discovered that these ensemble experiences often keep piano students studying longer because the students don't want to miss any of these ensemble experiences. This is a motivational way to get students to the state conventions where they see other events, such as concerts or performance contests. They often go home and ask if they could then be part of these competitions. This experience often can change a student's attitude toward piano study.

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The other festival is the Texas Chamber Music Festival, which evolved in the early 1990s. In its current format it is a combination of non-competitive ensembles, first coached in a master class setting. As a piano teacher I didn't have a string group to send. The first ensemble I sent included a tuba, cello, two trumpets, two clarinets, two flutes, two violins, a viola, a 5th-grader playing bells, two pianists and a singer. They chose Pachelbel's Canon for their repertoire. Before they played in their master class, I gave my disclaimer, which became my slogan: chamber music is a substitute for television. Don't worry about the make up of the group, or the arrangement--it's more important to get started. The chamber groups play at the state convention in a non-threatening way--outside in the hall as people are going between sessions. Later, they may be able to play in our new Chamber Music Competition. Some ideas about ways to start a chamber music festival might include 1) start where you are--it could be four kids on one bench doing an arrangement of a Christmas carol; 2) don't be afraid to arrange something yourself; 3) involve everyone--moms, dads and friends; 4) include chamber music in your studio awards--like the awards banquet for little league--a special ensemble award; 5) display memorabilia--TMTA has a photographer who comes to the convention--buy the photos and hang them over the piano; they become a great conversation piece and motivational tool because students are proud to see a photo of their accomplishments and 6) use motivating music--creativity is everything in getting students involved.

Jennifer Hayghe: The American Festival for the Arts was founded in 1993 by J. Todd Frazier to "provide accessible, high-quality music education and performance opportunities for youth and to broaden the audience for both new American works and the standard classical music repertory." The community-based Summer Conservatory in Houston, Texas, began operating in 1996, and the Southeast Texas Program in Beaumont, Texas, opened in 2005. In 2007, the piano program was added to the string program already in place at the Southeast Texas campus.

Every afternoon of the three-week program, attended by students in 5th through 12th grades from five counties surrounding Beaumont, is devoted to chamber music rehearsal and coachings, with all groups participating in a final gala performance at the end of the program. Professional faculty coach groups on a rotating basis. While the string orchestra rehearses in the morning, the piano class meets for workshops, performance classes, listening exercises, discussions of great pianists and repertoire, and guided practice sessions. The inaugural year of the piano program was so successful, a second piano faculty member, Carolyn True, was hired for the summer 2008 program.

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Students were excited to work together in piano ensembles and chamber music groups, and many commented on how much more comfortable they were being able to be "piano geeks" and "music nerds" together. One violinist told me that playing chamber music was his favorite part of the program, because it was the only time he felt directly responsible for a musical role, rather than just being one player in a large section. These experiences at the AFA help create a supportive environment for young music students, while providing motivation throughout the year to improve skills. By the end of the program last year, pianists and string players alike were already looking forward to this summer, and many of the pianists kept in touch throughout the year to tell me what they were working on and let me know about their most recent achievements. More information can be found at www.afatexas.org.

COMPILED BY CARLEEN GRAFF, NCTM