Competitions Main Page
2024 Rules and Regulations
Registration opens on November 15th.
The International Trumpet Guild (ITG) sponsors several on-going 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 Competition. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 25 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 Competition. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 25 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. New in 2023. 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 Competition. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 25 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 Competition. Monetary prizes awarded. Held at the annual ITG Conference. Entrants must be under 25 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: December 15. Rules to this competition are available above in PDF format. Email: [email protected]
ITG Youth Competition. 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.