Hi, I am a high school Junior and I recently got an email confirming that I won second place for the Concerto Competition. A month back, I attended an ensemble that traveled to NYC and performed at Carnegie Hall. Although the musical experience was wonderful (everyone’s level was definitely better than All-state level), I suspect part of the selection was the whole “pay and play” basis. I was just wondering if anyone knows if the American Protégé competition is similar to the one I attended? Is getting second place and performing at Carnegie Hall worth it if I’ve already been there before? The application was 160$ so if anyone knows if this competition’s selectivity is low, please tell me! I’m also a little worried about college admissions because I don’t intend to apply as a music major but would still like to show that I’ve accomplished a lot in music (I hope) (made All-state every year etc.) Thanks!!
If it helps, I am looking at Cornell and Columbia as reach schools. My SAT is 2230.
I am a bit confused by the post, are you saying that when you went to Carnegie Hall, you entered a concerto competition and were informed you won second place, and now want you to pay more to perform at another concert? Or are they saying you won the right to compete and now they want more money? Or are you asking if it is worth entering the Protege Competition since you won second in the other one?
I am assuming it is the third option, that you are thinking of entering the American Protege competition and wonder if it is worth it, if for example, you do well in it, it will help on your college CV…
My take would be to do that competition because you would enjoy doing it, enjoy performing at Carnegie Hall, seeing the other kids and so forth, and that 160 bucks would be worth that (plus, if you have any expenses to go there), not because it would ‘pay off’ otherwise. Given your musical portfolio has others things on it, it is likely that adding the American Protege competition to it (assuming you win),while it wouldn’t hurt, likely wouldn’t buy you all that much IMO. I can tell you that is one of the myriad competitions out there, and it is not one of the ‘big ones’ as far as I know, so probably would not add all that much, so if you don’t want to do it for other reasons, likely may not be ‘worth it’ in terms of the CV IMO.
Congratulations on recognizing the “pay to play” aspect of this contest.
It may be possible to “have your cake and eat it, too”. You can put on your resume that you received Second Prize at the 2016 American Protege Concerto Competition and were invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. This is absolutely true whether you pay the additional fees and perform again at Carnegie or not.
I don’t know how much performing at Carnegie Hall weighs with admission committees. It isn’t unusual for various high school youth orchestras to give performances there and and even my local high school was there several years back. I’m sure college reps are aware of this. If money is no object, why not rent the hall and give a full recital?
There are some Youtube performances on-line. You can judge the quality for yourself.
Best wishes on your college searches and admissions.
@momofadult:
You are right about that, the thing about Carnegie Hall is a lot of things go on there that don’t indicate it is a great honor or anything. Music schools rent out Carnegie Hall (either the main hall or the recital halls), high school orchestras play there, all kinds of things, and it doesn’t mean anything about how good they are (I remember years ago when this girl ‘prodigy’ proclaimed to have made her Carnegie Hall Debut at 8…turned out she won some competition put on by a Korean cultural competition, not exactly soloing with Orpheus). My son could put down he played the main stage and the recital halls many times, but it was part of the New York Youth Symphony and their chamber music program…
Like I told the OP, I doubt that a competition like that would do much to influence college admissions, I think that the sum total of their music experience would do a lot more as an EC on their college resume.
You are right about the fact that performing at Carnegie Hall as an ensemble doesn’t necessarily denote you as an exceptional musician, but this competition provides a completely different experience – to have a solo performance. Being able to say you did a solo performance at Carnegie Hall is much different than if you said your band played there. It carries much more weight and prestige.
You are certainly right about the fact that the competition is not as well known, though. The fact that the competition becomes a gateway to a solo performance in the Weill Recital Hall is much more important than the competition itself. It’s certainly something very nice to add to your resume. You won’t get that chance ever again once you grow older!
@cam943:
There is nothing wrong per se with getting the chance to play at Carnegie Hall, whether it is the main stage or Weill or Zankel recital hall, it is a wonderful experience, and to have that experience is a good memory. However, there is a big difference between that and looking at this as somehow going to be a gateway into the world of music or that it means something other than getting the opportunity to play there. There are plenty of local competitions that rent out space like Carnegie Hall, and winning the competition and soloing there simply means the kid won the competition, it doesn’t say whether the kid if the musical equivalent of Itzak Perlman or the equivalent of Florence Foster Jenkins. I have seen a 9 year old girl who had on her resume that she won the ‘prestigious’ NY violin competition, that turned out to be a competition sponsored by an ethnic cultural association, a music school and a foreign language newspaper in the community, I saw another competition winner heralded as ‘a prodigy’ and the competition was basically a competition for a large community music school that rented the place out…the fact that they rent out Carnegie Hall doesn’t mean the competition is anything more than one of a myriad of local competitions out there, all it means is they have the funds to do so and the date was open.
As far as putting it on your resume, it might impress people who don’t know the music world but within it I can guarantee you it doesn’t mean much, unless it is one of the major competitions like the Queen Elizabeth, Indiana, Menuhin and so forth on that level, if someone wins the Indiana and plays at Carnegie Hall as part of the prize, that means something because they have gone up against the world’s best and played spectacularly, it is a totally different level (and you can tell, when the winners of major competitions play places like Carnegie Hall, it is “sponsored by Carnegie Hall”).
That doesn’t mean the person who won shouldn’t do it, like I said performing at Carnegie Hall is always a special thing to do, and any opportunity to perform is never a bad thing, just saying don’t go into it thinking that having played at Carnegie Hall and/or won a competition like this is going to mean anything per se on a resume , most things in music in the end are based in talent. I have no doubt that winning a major, known competition like the Queen Elizabeth might have benefits with getting someone into a music school, potentially with a nice merit aid package, but the reality is that if they won a competition like that, they would have got in anyway. The answer to things like this always come down to what benefit do you get out of it, and with a competition like the OP is talking about, it is simply the joy of being able to perform solo, and to be doing so at a place like Carnegie Hall has its own magic, and if it is worth the 160 buck fee, then hey, do it, if not, don’t, but I wouldn’t put much more weight on it than that.
Can you clarify this sentence : "A month back, I attended an ensemble that traveled to NYC and performed at Carnegie Hall. " Did you play with this ensemble? I think the word “attended” makes your post confusing.
Not sure if all-state impresses conservatories or elite schools. Someone else can chime in.
For the schools you want to apply to, you can do an arts supplement with a recording of your playing (cue the best 3 minutes maybe), a music resume including awards, performances, teacher and training, ensembles, etc., and letter(s) of recommendation from teacher)s and/or director.
For an audition school, it is all about the music. Universities like Columbia or Cornell would want to know you can contribute on campus at a high level. You don’t have to be a music major: extracurricular music needs to benefit from your presence 
Once you clear up the confusion about your post, you might get more responses. Or maybe I am the only one confused!
Here is a little info from the site:
American Protégé works with senior managers and casting producers from Tremendous! Entertainment, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, NBC’s Today Show, Ellen DeGeneres TV Show, WCBS/WLNY morning show “The Couch”, “Feel Good” TV Show of French Channel 12, etc.
Starting this season, American Protégé is working in collaboration with NBC’s Little Big Shots, featuring executive producers Steve Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres. Children up to the age of 12 are being screened by the Organizational Committee, for possible future involvement in the show. For more information, please contact our Organizational Committee and visit the Little Big Shots webpage.
I have a very low opinion of the American Protege so-called “International Competition.” Practically everyone my violinist son knows has won that. Why not, after all, they hand out 10 or so “First Place” winners followed by 10 or so “Second Place” winners followed by 10 or so “Third Place” winners (and this is from just one competition and they do have a series of such competitions throughout the year) and then invited them to perform at Weill Recital Hall if any of them are willing to pay about $400 for the privilege of playing in a rented recital Hall along with dozens of mass produced “winners” that take just about all day to go through one after another. Not knocking on any of these “winners” that my son knows, but these winners have hard time winning anything at a local and state level concerto competitions that are juried, let alone “international competition.” One of my son’s friends won the first place in one of their series, but when she found out that this is pretty much a money making scheme, she not only declined the invitation but decided not to even bother mentioning it in her music resume in fear of having the name “American Protege” hurt her reputation. My recommendation is never bother with such mass producing factory of “international concerto competitions.” My guess is that, given how many “winners” post such honor in their college applications, the adcoms must know by now what the American Protege is about.
Thank you to everyone who replied I ended up deciding not doing the competition because it really wasn’t worth the time and money especially since I see a lot of my friends winning and playing there just for “kicks.” To clarify, back in February, I traveled to NY with an orchestra (audition/application process) and played at Carnegie. I’ll be applying to college soon and sending in my music supplements. Again, I appreciate the comments from everyone; it really brought a different perspective from how I thought before (Carnegie=best musicians).
@ambitiousgeek:
I am glad it helped. The music world can be a weird place, and with competitions it can be especially murky, there are competitions out there that are well meaning but pretty low level, there are competitions that are outright scams, where the winner ends up paying a lot in fees to play wherever they end up having the winners, some competitions are outright frauds in that they invite a lot of kids to participate, but you can bet certain kids will ‘win’. Music is like everything else, there are very caring, serious people in it out to promote music, and there are scam operators or things like the American Protege competition, that basically sees music as this cute thing cute kids do or something like that.
And yes, Carnegie Hall doesn’t equal the best musicians necessarily, I have had people tell me they only allow the best, etc, and that isn’t true, for rentals if you have the money to rent it and can get on the calendar, you can play there. I have known parents who placed a lot of weight on prestige and competitions, who found out putting 'child made debut as prodigy at 9 at Carnegie Hall" might have impressed friends and family, but that it didn’t impress people who know music, or admissions departments at colleges, whether academic or music schools, because most of them know the score with things like that.
One note on the value of things like competitions and such, there are two different worlds there as I think @compmom said. If you are applying to an academic school where music is an EC, then having things like awards, honors, competition wins and the like can help [though with a word of warning, the elite schools especially know the difference from an award given by a local music program and a more major one, and a kid who has gone through a program like Juilliard pre college for example will likely get more weight then a kid who has won some local competition, because they know the relative levels…]. You resume can show you are a music kid, and they do give that weight, schools tend to see that as a plus for them.
If you are applying to a music school, conservatory or school within a university, the resume likely won’t mean much (in the music school), that is going to be your audition mostly. I have heard anecdotal evidence that having a major music CV might bring in merit aid from the academic university (I doubt it does much for music merit aid for the most part), but in terms of getting into the music school as an auditioned student, not going to do much.