Hello WCS Students & Families!

Every spring, we look forward to the opportunities made available to our students through the “Virtuoso Club,” one of St. Louis’ local chapters of the Missouri Federation of Music Clubs. These include:

Spring Festival

Available to the widest range of student ages and levels, the Spring Festival gives students the opportunity to prepare a required piece, and a choice piece – or a required concerto movement – to perform for a judge. Students will then receive judge’s feedback, and earn a yearly ribbon and points towards trophies (several of you are on the cusp of earning your next trophy this year!). It’s a great opportunity to prepare perform under a bit of pressure, but still in a warm, safe, nurturing environment that’s designed to encourage not to critique. And the annual achievements serve as a great motivator for many students.

Music Camp Scholarship Competition

The Music Camp Scholarship Competition is held in two levels of competition, and available to students in 7th – 8th – 9th and 10th – 11th – 12th grade, respectively. Winners can earn up to $500 to be used towards a music education opportunity, and still receive judges feedback, ribbons, and progress towards trophies like Spring Festival participants, so it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of for all who are able. Prior year’s winners are not eligible to participate, which means that we’ll have a few students who can’t compete in this competition this year, but will be able to again next year. But we do have quite a few students for whom this would be a great opportunity!

District Competition

The District Competition is reserved for students in 10th – 11th – 12th grade, and offers winners the opportunity to compete at the State Competition. It is a higher level of competition, and serves as a great preparatory experience as well as a nice honor for winners to use on resumes. Prior year’s Camp Scholarship Competition winners should strongly consider competition in this competition this year.

Many of you will be used to participating in the Camp Scholarship and District Competitions at the Steinway Piano Gallery on Dorsett Rd. in March, and at the Spring Festival at St. Charles Community College in April. However, due to the ongoing difficulty of securing locations for large groups of participants, the Virtuoso Club has decided to hold this year’s events by online video submission this year, as they did in 2020. This means all participants can prepare performing with a prerecorded accompaniment track, and submit their performance at their convenience.

The cost for entry into all events is $30. Please make entry fees out to West County Strings, and we’ll submit a single payment for the studio. Registrations are due from by February 15, and video submissions are due by April 8th. Although that seems like a long way away, we’ve already started preparing in many instances, and should certainly start preparing as soon as possible for anyone who would like to participate! Let’s all make sure to discuss your opportunities in your next lesson.