Competitions Main Page

2025 Rules and Regulations

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The International Trumpet Guild (ITG) sponsors several ongoing competitions and contests that offer cash prizes and scholarships.
Official rules supersede the brief descriptions on this page and are made available for download below early in the fall semester.



The following competitions take place at the annual international conferences of the International Trumpet Guild. PDF of the current competition rules are linked above. For information not found on these pages or in the .pdf files, please contact the Chair of Conference Competitions.

ITG Orchestral Excerpts Division. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 28 years of age on May 1 of the competition year. Deadline to apply: December 15. Rules to this competition are available above in PDF format. Email: [email protected]

ITG Solo Performance Division. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 28 years of age on May 1 of the competition year. Deadline to apply: December 15. Rules to this competition are available above in PDF format. Email: [email protected]

ITG Chamber Music Division. Open to groups of 3-10 players of any instrumentation so long as one instrument is trumpet. Average age of players in group must be 28 or less by May 1 of competition year. Email: [email protected]

ITG Jazz Improvisation Division. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 28 years of age on May 1 of the competition year. Deadline to apply: December 15. Rules to this competition are available above in PDF format. Email: [email protected]

ITG Wind Band Excerpts Division. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 28 years of age on May 1 of the competition year. Deadline to apply: December 15. Rules to this competition are available above in PDF format. Email: [email protected]

ITG Conference Scholarships for Students.(Supported by the ITG Memorial Fund and the Music Industry). Scholarships for annual ITG Conference. For students in following age groups: under 15, 15-19, 19-22, and 22-25. Also for jazz students up to 25.Ages as of February 1 of the competition year. Deadline to apply: February 5. Rules to this competition are available above in PDF format. Email: [email protected]

ITG Youth Division. The ITG, in its efforts to encourage young performers, presents two competition divisions (Under 15 and 15-19) for players of all soprano brass instruments (trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, E-flat cornet) Held at the annual ITG Conference. Deadline to apply: December 15. Rules to this competition are available above in PDF format. Email: [email protected]

 

 


Professional Competitions

Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition

Sponsored by the International Trumpet Guild and the Herb Alpert Foundation.

$15,000 total prizes. Held once every two years.

 


 

Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Solo Competition

Sponsored by the International Trumpet Guild and The Columbus Foundation of Columbus, Ohio.

$15,000 total prizes. Held once every four years. 

 


 The article The Roads They've Taken: A Look at ITG's Student Contest Winners by Anne Hardin (May96 ITGJ) [500k] describes the annual conference competitions and follows up on the careers of winners from 1977-1995.

 

Take advantage of what ITG has to offer: