Young Artists Competition

Since 1956, the Tuesday Musical Club has held a Young Artists Competition each spring for serious students of music who reside or study in Texas. The competition is held for piano, voice, or strings in rotating years. Texas Public Radio often records the Finals of the Competition, held in the evening, for later broadcast.

The 2027 Competition will be held in Piano, at the Ruth Taylor Recital Hall, Trinity University. The date will be announced soon, and a registration form will be available this fall.

The 2026 Competition, in strings, was held at the Ruth Taylor Recital Hall, at Trinity University, on March 7. A wonderful group of 11 young musicians participated in the competition.

The winners of the 2026 competition were:

1st place: Cirdan Vonnahme, cello, from Rice University
2nd place: Nicholas Shih-Progrebney, violin, from Baylor University
3rd place: Kaylan Walker, viola, from Texas Christian University

For their finals pieces, Cirdan played Schelmo-Hebraic Rhapsody, by Ernest Bloch; Nicholas played Carmen Fantasy, by Franz Waxman; and Kaylan played Elegie in F minor, Opus 30, by Henri Vieuxtemps.

Judges for the 2026 competition were: Richard Kilmer from the Austin Symphony, Angela Ruiz from Cameron College in Lawton, Oklahoma, and Kelsey Sexton from Texas State University. Thanks to all the judges for helping make the competition a success. Special thanks go to Angela, who drove from Oklahoma!

If you are interested in who some past winners have been, click here for a listing.

The Competition is made possible by the generous support of Martha Oppenheim, and these Tuesday Musical Club funds: Anna Hertzberg Fund for Music, Emma Albright/Dorothy Werner Foundation, Lucile Scrivener/Ernest Scrivener Memorial Award Fund, Ann Stuckey Fund Trust, V.Raulston/G.Pyron/L.Rogerson Fund, Elizabeth Ann Green Fund, Mattie Jennie Fund, Muriel Kelly/Kitty Kelly Kellond Trust, and Harry Herzberg Operating Fund.