Regulations

Contest Regulations

The International Music Olympiad (IMuO) is organized as a competition for students of general comprehensive primary and secondary education and is a competition amongst individuals.

Contestants

A Country’s Contestants should normally be citizens or residents of that Country and should be selected through the Country’s National Music Olympiad or equivalent selection programme. Contestants must be enrolled in full-time comprehensive education on the year of the Olympiad.

Age groups

The Contest takes place in two age groups:

The 1st group: aged 12–15
The 2nd group: aged 16–19

Each Country can send up to 6 Contestants: 3 for the 1st Group and 3 for the 2nd Group.

Language

The spoken language used at the Olympiad will be English.
The written tasks (assignments) for both age groups will be provided in the native language of the contestant.

Content

The IMuO consists of three parts:

1. Musical Knowledge

The contestants will take the written test on Exam.net. The jury members will monitor them in a Zoom video conference call. Additional information will be published in the Manual of the 5th IMuO.

A written test including music listening, music appreciation and music history assignments

Music History may include questions from the following: Medieval and Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romanticism, 20th and 21st Century, World Music, Film Music, Jazz, Rock and Pop.

Information material on the chosen set of compositions for listening and selected compositions, written by Slovenian composers, will be posted on the 5th IMuO website 30 days before the competition.

Due to the circumstances in music education during the period of the pandemic there will not be a Rhythmic-Melodic Sight-reading Skills test.

2. Vocal performance

The video of the song, recorded in .mp4 format in one take. The contestant can use the recording from the last National Music Olympiad or the recording from the academic year 2021/2022.

The song must be up to 3 minutes in length, performed from memory, either unaccompanied or with accompaniment by acoustic instruments.
It is recommended to perform a folk song, or a song written by a composer of the Contestant’s country, in the native language.
The Contestant must present a short description of the song in English and a background description in the application form.

Detailed information is published in the Manual of the 5th IMuO.

3. Composition

The video of the original composition, recorded in .mp4 format in one take. The contestant can use the recording from the last National Music Olympiad or the recording from the academic year 2021/2022.

The Contestant must take part in the recorded performance.

The composition must be solely an original work of the contestant. In case of a song composition, pre-existing lyrics or poetry may be used. The composition must be up to in length.

The composition can be:

a work for solo voice or vocal ensemble; unaccompanied or with instrumental accompaniment; or
a work for solo instrument or instrumental ensemble; or
a work for solo voice or instrument or vocal and/or instrumental ensemble that includes electro-acoustic, audiovisual or multimedia.

Detailed information is published in the Manual of the 5th IMuO.

Assessment

The results of the Olympiad will be assessed by an international Jury which consists of one jury member from each participating country along with two jury members from the hosting country, one of which is the Chair of the Jury.

Awards and prizes
The awards in both age groups are:

for the first three placements – Golden Diplomas
for the fourth, fifth and sixth placements – Silver Diplomas
next placements according to results– Bronze Diplomas

For each age group the following Special Prizes are awarded:

Best Musical Knowledge Prize
Best Song Performance Prize
Best Composition Prize

The Jury is entitled to award additional prizes in case of extraordinary achievement in specific fields of the Olympiad.

Participation Confirmation and Registration

Participation Confirmation

Each Country wishing to participate must confirm their participation by the 20th of March 2022.

Registration

The deadline for registration of Contestants in the 5th IMuO Ljubljana 2022 is the 22th of April 2022.

Participation fee

A participation registration fee of thirty euro (€30) for each Contestant must be paid by the 22th of April 2022.

Publicity Consent

All Participants and Observers consent to the publication of their names, photographs and video footage on the IMuO website.

Each contestant must have a signed compliance of the GDPR.

Jury Regulations

The Jury consists of all Leaders together with a Chair.

A Leader may be replaced by a Deputy Leader in case of an emergency (subject to the consent of the Chair of the Jury).

The Jury may appoint sub-committees to consider specific matters.

The meetings of the Jury are conducted primarily in English.

The Content of the written tasks must be kept strictly confidential until the Conclusion of the IMuO.

Before the Contest, each member of the Jury:

Signs a confidentiality agreement.
Verifies that all Contestants comply with the specified conditions for participation.
Prepares and approves the translations of the written tasks in the required languages.

After the Contest the Jury:

Approves the Scores of all Contestants.
Decides winners of First, Second and Third Prizes.
Considers all proposals to award Special Prizes.
Gives feedback for future IMuOs

Any violation of the regulations is reported to the Chair of the Jury and is investigated by a committee.

All Jury decisions are final.

Regulations, approved on the 18th February 2022 by the International Music Olympiad Academic Committee.