STUDENTS

The 2023 Competition Handbook (pdf download) is available here.

• Registration now takes place at sdmta.tenutoweb.com. Please check your email for login details.

TEACHERS

The 2023 Competition Handbook (pdf download) is available here.

• Registration now takes place at sdmta.tenutoweb.com. Please check your email for login details.


• Check to be certain your student’s entry meets all competition guidelines as listed in the current Competition Handbook–revised and available on the student competitions page on this site.


• Complete each of your students’ registration forms through the link provided on the SDMTA website with a detailed list of all pieces to be performed, including opus numbers and full composers' names. Please be aware that this registration is to be done by the teacher, not the student.


• Remember that all entries are due online no later than September 20th. On September 21st the application entry form will be removed from the website so no late entries will be allowed.


• As soon as your student's form is submitted, a confirmation email will be generated to you. If you do not receive one, first check your spam folder and if it’s not there, please contact the webmaster at info@tenuto.com.


• Collect the entry fee from each student. You will need to send a single check only which includes the fees for all your students, postmarked no later than September 20th and payable to SDMTA to the Treasurer: Deborah Kalsbeck, 800 Candlewood Lane, Brookings, SD 57006.


• Once the schedule has been set, you will receive your student’s performance time and other pertinent information related to the competition day. This year we will not be signing up for 10 minute slots in the competition room. There are many other competitions where students are not given this opportunity and in the past, not all students have had the opportunity to sign up for a rehearsal time or some have taken more time than was allowed. We feel it is more fair to all the competitors to not have these warm up times.


• As a teacher with students competing in the competition, you must either sign up for times to monitor or find a substitute to do this for you.

SDMTA TREASURER

The 2021 Competition Handbook (pdf download) is available here.

• After the registration deadline (September 16th ) the Webmaster will provide the Treasurer via email with:


• one Excel document (csv) on which you will enter the payment information for each teacher as it comes in (see next item).


• one Excel document (csv) on which you will enter the monitor information for each.


• The Teacher Registration Forms with all registration entry fees will come to the Treasurer via US Mail.

The postmark deadline is September 20th. Assuming good postal service, all should be received no later
than September 29/30. The Treasurer is not responsible for "going after' teachers who have not paid by then.

• By that September 29-30 date,


• Enter all the payment information, attach that csv to an email and send it to the Overall Competition Coordinator.


• Enter all the monitor information, attach that csv to an email and send it to the Site Chair.

THE OVERALL COMPETITION COORDINATOR

The 2021 Competition Handbook (pdf download) is available here.

• During the summer the Overall Coordinator and/or Site Chair will begin to hire judges. Generally two piano judges and one voice judge are pre-hired, but ideas are generated about who to ask after registration numbers are in. Site chairs have good ideas about qualified judges in the area. An effort is made to avoid using the same judges from year to year.


• Also during the summer (no later than mid-August), create an account at http://sdmta.org/student-competitions/login/createAccount.php so you can have access to the registration information on the website. You will need to wait for an email confirming your account is active. Then you will be able to log in at http://sdmta.org/student-competitions/login/login.php


• The log-in is your email address for SDMTA communications. (Be sure that the email address on the Competition Handbook is the address you use on all communication for the competitions.)


• Create a password of your choosing.


• Once you have established that account, wait for a confirmation email from the webmaster informing you that your account has been activated. You will have access to a web page (that looks like the screen shot below) and with that the ability to manage all aspects of the competition.



• As you can see, from this page you will be able to access the Scheduling, the Program Pages, the Comment Sheets, and the Certificates.


• Familiarize yourself with the requirements for all others involved in the competitions. There are instructions for Students, Teachers, the Treasurer, and each SDMTA Competition Category Chair. Know the deadlines:


• Student Entries, no later than September 16th. September 17th the webmaster will remove the entry blank from the website so there can be no late entries.


• Teacher Registration Forms must be mailed to the Treasurer, postmarked no later than September 20th. (Assuming reasonable mail service, they should all arrive by September 29/30.)


• When all entry fees are paid or no later than September 30, the Treasurer will email you the completed payment list. If payment has not been received by the deadline, you must notify the teacher/s that his/her students may not perform.


• On the Competitions Menu page (see above) under Schedule Competitions, Get a CSV. [.csv is a “comma-separated values” file that looks like a simple spreadsheet. It can be opened and saved in the spreadsheet program of your choice.]See below:


• There is a form for each category so you can assign blocks of time and locations for each one. With this information you also will be able to tell if additional judges and/or spaces are needed so that these needs can be met.


• REMEMBER: MTNA Competitions are NOT included in this database but you must consider them in your scheduling.


• Enter the information online and save it by selecting the schedule categories button. That saves the information to the database so that the category chairs can log-in and enter specific times for each competitor.


• Email each SDMTA Category Chair as soon as all entries are complete and/or no later than the end of the first week of October to tell them that the information is available on the SDMTA website. Be emphatic that that they must add the actual scheduling in each block.


• At the same time an automatic email will be generated and sent to the teachers of competitors alerting them to the "block of time" schedules. That way teachers and their students can begin making plans for travel to the competition, even without knowing exactly when they will perform.


• Once you have an overall schedule put together, please email it to Nancy Syring (our 2nd VP who is in charge of bulk emailing) so she may alert all our teachers (also via email) to the final “block of time” schedules. That way they and their students can begin making plans for travel to the competition, even without knowing exact performance times. Include in that email the fact that specific performance times will come from the Category Chairs.


• You will be responsible for checking for Accompanist Schedule Conflicts. You will receive an email from each SDMTA Competition Category Chair once they have entered all their information into the database so that you can check this. Once that is done, email the Chairs so they can proceed with their next duty.


• Between the end of September and the competition itself the Overall Coordinator should follow up with all parties involved to stay on top of any problems that may arise.

SDMTA INDIVIDUAL CATEGORY CHAIRS

2021 Online Competition Instructional Videos for Category Chairs

The 2021 Competition Handbook (pdf download) is available here.

The instructions below are in chronological order but there are no specific dates. Please acquaint yourself with the deadlines as listed in the current Handbook. Simply put yourself in the place of the entering teacher and student and you will understand how important it is to do these tasks in a timely manner.

• Late Summer-Early Fall: Create an account at http://sdmta.org/student-competitions/login/createAccount.php so you can have access to the registration information on the website. You will need to wait for an email confirming your account is active. Then you will be able to log in at http://sdmta.org/student-competitions/login/login.php


• The log-in is your email address for SDMTA communications.
• Create a password of your choosing.


• When you choose your category this will link you to a page on the SDMTA website that looks like the form below.
• You can log in anytime during the registration period but you will not have specific duties until you receive an email notification from the Overall Competition Coordinator with the blocks of time assigned to each level of the competition of which you are in charge.


• Check to be sure the Repertoire matches the requirements for each category. Links under the Program Pages list all the repertoire. They will be printed by the "print chair" later so the Category Chair uses that only to check that the repertoire.


• Assign each student a specific time and enter it on the form as soon as you have checked the repertoire. Under Schedule Category, links will take you to the names of the registered students and their teachers. It will also give the performing times (lengths) of their programs. An example of a voice category from 2015 is below.


• The chairs are asked to schedule students in an order that strives for variety in:
• Schools/Home Towns
• Teachers
• Accompanists


• Since one of our goals is to hear students beyond our own studios, it makes sense that there should not be blocks of all the students from one college or one teacher. Accompanists need a little time to coordinate with each student just before he/she performs so an effort should be made to keep from having the pianist play for two or more in a row.


• Let the Overall Competition Coordinator know via email as soon as you finish these assignments so that he/she can check any accompanist scheduling issues. They will know if there are accompanists who are doing both vocal and instrumental and can assist in the specific scheduling.


• Email the specific information to the teachers as soon as you receive the okay from the Overall Coordinator. This is perhaps your most important job as Chair so please accomplish it in a timely and efficient manner (as early in October as possible). Unlike past practice, the teachers then will contact their own students. All contact for the competition will be between the Chair and the Teacher only. Include the time/location/performance number/assigned rehearsal time.


• In the week or two prior to the competition, the Comment Sheet link takes the Chairs directly to a formatted sheet for the judge. Each Chair should print those prior to the competitions for inclusion in the packets they prepare for the judges of each category.


• At the competition each Category Chair will meet the judge and go over the rules for the competitions as they have been determined by the membership. The rules are in the Competition Handbook which is revised and put on the website each year. The Chair also will provide manila envelopes containing the schedule for each category (without names), the comment sheets, pencils and extra paper. The Chairs also open each competition (or find someone to do that) and try to remain available as questions arise during the day. As agreed upon at the 2015 competitions, the Chair also will serve as the judge’s monitor in all his/her categories (except in the case of concurrent events).


• At the close of the event, the Chair gets the results from the judge and either announces or posts them. Be sure to get all comment sheets so they can be appropriately distributed. Do NOT give them to the performers.


• After the competition: in the Competition Headquarters enter into the database (or give to the Competition Managers) the awards as given by the judge. Also turn in all comment sheets so that they can be distributed to the teachers.

PRINT MANAGER

• Late Summer-Early Fall: Create an account at http://sdmta.org/student-competitions/login/createAccount.php so you can have access to the registration information on the website. You will need to wait for an email confirming your account is active. Then you will be able to log in at http://sdmta.org/student-competitions/login/login.php


• The log-in is your email address for SDMTA communications.


• Create a password of your choosing.


• The web page is the same used by the Overall Competition Coordinator. That account will take him/her to a page that looks like the screen shot included below:

In the weeks prior to the conference, the programs can be printed from that page. Christina has created a form that uses formatting similar to the traditional program books. Whether they are compiled into books or as single programs will need to be determined by the membership.

For 2015 I (Cheryl Koch) printed teacher packets for piano & voice [one per teacher who enters students] which included all the entries in that category. In addition there weree individual sheets outside each venue for performers and parents. The packets had teacher names on them and were distributed at the registration table. Since there are few entries in instrumental categories, only individual sheets were printed. The registration table will have a complete set (or several) for checking in students, etc. The only problem with this was that we didn’t have constant help at the registration table so some teachers just took whatever they could find. If 2016 is the same way, a different system should be devised.

CERTIFICATE PRINTER

At the conference this person will print certificates as needed—again, from information already in the database, with proper spelling and category information. [Christina Humpal did this in 2015. If it is someone else in the future, that person also will have to have an online account to access the web data.] (This applies only to SDMTA competitions. MTNA provides the certificates for those competitions and uses their own format.)

MTNA Competition Chairs

Your duties must conform to MTNA rules so they are not addressed here except for the following method for converting the program listings to a form compatible with the rest of the SDMTA Competition Pages. Hopefully it will eliminate the need to retype the information, as you had to do in the past.

TUTORIAL FOR CONVERTING TABLES TO TEXT

(MTNA database for use in SDMTA program pages)

Have MTNA Chairs copy the table from the national website (MTNA.org)

Save in WORD document

Select data in table and under men: TABLE: CONVERT: convert table to text (with tabs)

SELECT categories to be organized and FORMAT: TABS: first clear all tabs. Then set new ones as below:
Left .25 in. (only used for movements or larger works on second lines of entries)
Left 2.5 in. (composer)
Left 4.25 in. (style category)
Decimal 5.75 in. (time of piece)
Decimal 6.25 in. (accumulating timing)

INSERT line for category titles above each performer. Set tabs (mostly same)
Left 2.5 in. (composer)
Left 4.25 in. (style category)
Left 5.625 in. (time of piece)
Left 6.125 in. (accumulating timing)

Put a BORDER (black) around that line and under FORMAT: SHADING, create 10% gray shade.

Above each program on left margin list number of performer and time of performance in BOLD.

At bottom of page put disclaimer about performers’ names.