NCCO11 Conductor Fellowship Program
Deadline: July 20, 2025, 11:59 PDT
The National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) invites applications for the 2025 Conductor Fellowship Program at the 11th Biennial National Conference, November 6-8, 2025, hosted by Cal State Fullerton.
The four selected fellows will participate in the NCCO11 Conducting Masterclass. Each conducting fellow will also receive a $500 travel stipend and a complimentary (fee-waived) registration to the NCCO11 Conference.
Objectives
- To encourage and support graduate students who are on the cusp of a career in conducting choral music
- To provide an opportunity to strengthen conducting technique through participation in the Conducting Masterclass
- To provide networking opportunities with collegiate choral conductors, with the intent to develop mentor/mentee relationships that continue beyond the conference
- To encourage graduate student participation in NCCO
Applicant Criteria
- Applicants must hold an active NCCO student membership at the time of application. Two-year student memberships are $50. Click here to join NCCO.
- Applicants must be actively enrolled in an artist diploma, master's, or doctoral degree program in choral conducting or a related area (e.g. other fields of conducting, music education, choral literature, etc.)
- Applicants must submit a complete application; incomplete applications will not be considered.
- All accepted fellows are expected to attend the NCCO11 Conference at Cal State Fullerton, November 6-8, 2025, and attend all Fellowship-related events.
Mentoring Opportunities
- Everyone who applies for the Fellowship program will receive a 30-minute mentoring session with an NCCO faculty member. This will allow for meaningful engagement for all applicants -- not just those accepted as Fellows -- to further NCCO’s goal of encouraging and supporting graduate students.
- If a mentoring session cannot take place at the conference for any reason, it may take place virtually instead.
TO APPLY
Please read all of the following information to assist you in the application process. Each applicant should be prepared to submit:
- Applicant's name, email, graudate institution, and degree program
- High-resolution headshot, to be used for the conference program if accepted
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Video selections totalling 7-10 minutes of the applicant conducting in recent performance(s). If performance footage is not available, rehearsal footage may be substituted.
- Videos must be submitted as YouTube and/or Vimeo links. The videos should be public or unlisted (that is, not private videos).
- Applicants may list up to three links, with duration totalling no more than 10 minutes.
- If an applicant wishes to submit an excerpt from a longer piece of video footage, they must provide a link to the exact timestamp within the video where they wish the adjudicators to review.
- Footage should provide clear images of the front of the conductor.
- Adjudicators will consider the following during their evaluation:
- Effective and nuanced conducting gesture
- Musicianship and musicality
- CV/resume in PDF format highlighting the applicant's academic and teaching experience, including any work with collegiate-level and other choral ensembles
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Contact information for one conducting faculty reference:
- Please provide the faculty member's name, title, email, and phone number.
- If contacted by NCCO, this faculty member should be able to verify the applicant's status as an enrolled graduate student at their institution.
- Full letters of reference are not required and should not be sent to NCCO.
- Confirmation that you meet the eligibility criteria listed above. Applicants must hold an active NCCO student membership at the time of application.
- Your consent and agreement to the "Visual/Audio Images Release" given in the application form.
NCCO seeks to remove barriers from application. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions.
Deadline: Applications must be submitted by July 20, 2025, 11:59pm PDT.
Notification: Results will be communicated to applicants by August 8.
Deadline: July 20, 2025, 11:59 PDT