BIYMF is the International Youth Music Competition/Festival for young musicians up to age 25 that takes place in Brisbane, Australia. BIYMF was founded in August 2012 in Brisbane. The Festival provides musically gifted young people with creative opportunities to develop their potential abilities and grow professionally.

The Brisbane International Youth Music Festival (BIYMF), August 25 – September 15, 2021 , will provide an opportunity for emerging musically talented youth to gain experience in competition at an international standard.

The competition component of the BIYMF is for solo instrumentalists, solo vocalists and ensembles, aged 25 years or under.

Festival dates

August 25 – September 15, 2021 – the festival will be held online via video submissions.

Eligibility

BIYMF is open to instrumentalists (strings, piano) of any nationality aged 25 and under.

Applicants can compete in 2 categories Strings or Piano, each category will have the following age brackets:

• Under 9s
• Under 12s
• Under 15s
• Under 18s
• Over 18s

The age brackets will be decided based on the applicants’ age at the time of the festival, i.e if an applicant turns 13 prior to August 9th, then they will compete in the senior category, otherwise they’ll be placed in the junior category.

Conditions

Repertoire

• Competitors must record and submit one piece of their choice.
• Finalists – should the applicant progress to the next round of the competition they will be given an opportunity to submit another recording if they wish, this is not required.

Judges

The judging panel is composed of a minimum of 3 distinguished, international musicians and all decisions of the panel are final. The judges reserve the right to withhold any prize or award should the required standard not be achieved. Read more about the adjudicators.

Conflict of Interest

In the spirit of fairness and transparency, adjudicators that have a conflict of interest with any of the participants (teacher/student, parent/child) will not be permitted to score the performances of those participants.

Recordings

The Festival reserves the right to record, film, web-stream or broadcast any part of the Festival events. By participating competitors grant BIYMF the sole and exclusive right to use of these recordings.

Application Process

The following must be received by BIYMF before an application can be accepted:

• An application form must be completed on the BIYMF website with a copy of the applicant’s passport or birth certificate for proof of age. All applicable information must be completed.
• A link to a YouTube/Vimeo/Google Drive/Dropbox recording of the applicant performing their repertoire must be included in the application form. 
• Payment of the $99 AUD non-refundable application fee via can be paid directly thorough the BIYMF website or direct deposit payment is available. Please note, that the application fee will increase to $149 after the early-bird cut off date.