Frequently Asked Questions

Congratulations! You will receive an email by April 15^th with details on how to receive your prize. Keep an eye on your junk mail folder.

Submissions are now closed for the Festival. You may still register on the festival website in order to vote for Audience Choice through January 30, 2023.

Click the "Forgot your password?" link to reset your password.

If you are locked out of your account, please email [email protected] from the email address associated with your account.

The Festival website is not associated with RCM accounts. Please register for the Festival site by clicking "Register" on the upper right menu.
 

This email is sent to the email address used to register for the Festival website. Please check your junk folder as it is often filtered there. If you still cannot find it, please email [email protected]

If you see a message that says "Token expired. Please Click Here to request another token", please click the "Click Here" text and a new validation link will be sent to your email.

All qualifying rounds of the festival will be held virtually. Finalists in the Youth Division Intermediate and Advanced Categories will perform live, in-person, for the judges at the grand finale at Koerner Hall in Toronto on March 21, 2023. 

The Music Lights the Way Piano Festival was designed to encourage both teachers and students to explore the new Celebration Series^®, Sixth Edition. While participation is limited to piano students, we encourage all members of the RCM community to celebrate the joy of music by voting online for our Audience Choice awards.

You can find the complete Rules and Regulations here and in French here. 

​To cast your Audience Choice vote, login/register to the division you would like to vote in (Youth Division or Adult Division). Once logged into the Music Lights the Way Piano Festival page, proceed to the gallery by clicking “Browse” on the top right corner of the page. Here you can browse the videos that have been submitted to the Music Lights the Way Piano Festival. Once you click on a video, you can click on the “VOTE NOW” button below the video to cast your vote daily through January 30, 2023. Please note that the platform does not allow you to vote for yourself.

 

No. While you will need to register on the festival platform in order to vote, this is separate from RCM accounts.

Yes. Once registered on the festival site, you can vote for any one Youth Division and one Adult Division video each day regardless of which video you previously voted for.

Yes, while students are unable to vote for themselves on the platform, teachers are welcome to register for their own account and vote for their own students.

To vote you must register and log in to the festival site. Once logged in, you may vote for one Youth Division and one Adult Division video each calendar day.

A panel of distinguished judges consisting of members of the RCM College of Examiners, well-known pedagogues, and professional musicians.

Performances will be judged using the established marking rubrics of The Royal Conservatory Certificate Program. This includes Preparation, Technical Command, Interpretation, Stylistic Understanding, Musical Engagement, Recovery from minor slips or brief lapses.

No. The jury will assess the musical merit of the performance, not the quality of the submitted video.

Marks from the Jury will not be released at any point during or after the festival. However, written feedback will be distributed to all students who move onto the Second Round.

No. Only those advancing beyond the first round will receive feedback. In the Youth Division, Semi-Finalists will receive a signed certificate and written feedback on their performance from the judges. For the Adult Division, those that are invited to the Second Round will receive a signed certificate and written feedback on their performance from the judges.

If you are selected to advance, you will be notified by The Royal Conservatory by email using the email address used to register.

1. To check the status of your submission, login to your Music Lights the Way Piano Festival account
   • Youth Division
   • Adult Division​
2. Click on "Account" in upper right menu. Scroll to the bottom of your account page to see the "My Contest Entries" section.
3. If you see an image of your video, this means you have successfully submitted.
4. If the video image has a “Moderation” flag across it, this means that your video is awaiting approval to check that it follows the video performance guidelines. This may take up to week beyond the deadline.
5. If there is no video image and it says “This user has not loaded anything yet.” this means that we did not receive your submission.
6. Please try submitting on another device and network or email [email protected] before the deadline to request a manual submission. 

No. All submission videos are embedded onto the festival site from Vimeo. In order to remain eligible for the festival and any prizes, your video must remain on Vimeo with the original link set to Public and embeddable Anywhere.

For updates to information in your submisison, please send the info that requires updating to [email protected] Note that video links cannot be updated as students are allowed only one submission.

No. Only one video will be accepted. Substitutions are not allowed.

All video submissions to the festival will be viewable publicly on the festival platform and may be shared on the festival website or via RCM’s social media.

To have your submission removed, email [email protected] and we will remove it for you. Note that you will no longer be eligible to submit a video.

No. Students who advance to the second round will be judged by their original video submission. Students who advance to the virtual Finals will be judged by their original submisison video. Students who advance to the live Finals will perform the same repertoire as their original video submission.

1. Go to the festival site:
   • Youth Division
   • Adult Division
2. Click "Browse" in the upper right menu.
3. Once on the Browsing page, you can sroll through submissions, filter for a specific level or repertoire, or search for anything in the video title (performer name, level, repertoire title, composer).

The RCM will arrange and pay for travel and accommodation for each Intermediate and Advanced Category Youth Division Finalist from their home to and from Toronto, ON, Canada. Travel expenses for one accompanying parent/guardian for all finalists 17 years of age and under will also be covered. Any upgrades and/or bookings made by finalists and/or their parent/guardian will not be reimbursed.

Yes. Any Intermediate or Advanced Youth Division Finalist that is unable to attend the in-person finals will be replaced with the alternate from the same category. You will still be eligible for the Audience Choice award and Participation prize.

This aligns with our policy for celebrating National Gold Medals. Only students in Levels 5 and higher are invited to perform at National Celebrations of Excellence.

The Adult Division is non-competitive. The names of the Jury Favorites and Audience Choice in each category will be announced at the event.

For the Youth Division, three ranked winners will be announced for each Category. For the Adult Division, one Jury Favorite and two Runners Up will be announced for each Category.

For the list of prizes, please click here.

The Audience Choice award is given to the student in each Category who has received the most votes through online public voting.

All eligible applicants in both the Youth and Adult Divisions will be entered into a draw for Participation prizes. All teachers listed with RCM Teacher Number in eligible Student submissions, as well as music schools listed in eligible Student submissions, will also be entered into a Participation prize draw. Participation prize draw will take place at the grand finale.