MMTA Contest Dates 2026

MMTA (Minnesota Music Teachers Association) State Piano Contest

To encourage high performance standards, MMTA sponsors State Piano Contest Preliminaries in each district throughout the state in late January/early February, and State Piano Contest Finals in March of each year. Over 5000 students enter the State Piano Contest annually. Pianists with the highest scores in the State Piano Contest Finals are selected to perform in ensembles at the State Honors Concert in June, at Northrop Auditorium on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. This concert has grown into a gala event involving 700 young performers on 20 grand pianos.

Students perfect one piece to play for the judge. Contest is usually held at Bethel or the U of M and students just play their piece in a room for one judge - so it's not that threatening :) This is a great chance for students to really work on polishing a piece and gain experience in a contest setting. In addition, they receive comments from another teacher about their performance. The gala concert features 20 performers at one time – 10 on part one of a duet, and 10 on part two of a duet – a regular “Piano” ensemble of grand proportions!

MMTA CONTEST DATES 2026

Preliminaries are held on Saturday and Sunday, January 24 and 2 at Bethel University

There is also an option to do virtual contest for the preliminaries ONLY

Finals are held on Saturday and Sunday, March 7 and 8 at U of M, Ferguson Hall

The Honors Concert for winners is June 6, 2026 at the Minneapolis Convention Center  

Rehearsals for Honors Concert are on the following Saturdays in May and June 

4/18/26,  5/02/26,  5/16/26,   6/06/26

Entrance fee is $28 per contest entry

SUDENT COMPOSITION CONTEST MMTA

Registration Deadline is March 1, 2026 and has a $25 fee