2024 NTSO Student Art Contest
Theme: Art Meets Music
Calling all high school students who love art and music!
Get ready to unleash your creative genius with the 2024 NTSO Student Art Contest!
Create a poster inspired by listening to one of the music selections listed below, and you could win cash prizes and fame.
Entries will be displayed in an art gallery at the May concert of the New Texas Symphony Orchestra where those same musical selections will be performed.
Your poster could be totally abstract (inspired by the rhythmic movements, feelings or emotions) or a depiction related to the piece title, background or theme. Let the music be your inspiration!
The New Texas Symphony Orchestra will perform in concert on May 19, 2024 at the Moody Performance Hall in the downtown Dallas Arts District, 2520 Flora Street (map). The performance is free and all are invited to attend.
Contest Guidelines
The 2024 NTSO Student Art Contest is open to all students in 9th through 12th grade.
Each poster must visually illustrate the theme: Art Meets Music
Designs must be inspired by a piece of music from NTSO’s upcoming free May 19, 2024 concert at Moody Performance Hall. Links to YouTube performances of the pieces are provided below in the Contest Inspiration.
Designs must incorporate a reference to the selected piece of music.
Designs must be original work created by the student. Limit one entry per student. No group entries are allowed.
Entries must measure 11” high x 15” wide, and designs should be laid out horizontally in a landscape orientation. Students may use multiple colors of their choice. Entries should be submitted on heavy paper such as a poster, tag, or illustration board.
Media may include crayons, paint, markers, colored pencils and digital art.
All entries must include a completed entry form affixed to the back of the artwork. Click and download the entry form.
Entries must be turned in by Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Entries may be mailed or delivered in person as described below in the Concert Deadline section.
NTSO will notify the parents of the winners no later than Friday, May 10, 2024. All contestants will be invited to the NTSO’s free concert on May 19 at the Moody Performance Hall.
The top entries will have their artwork displayed in the lobby of Moody Performance Hall at the NTSO’s May 19 concert.
The first, second, and third place winners will each receive a cash prize, with a top prize of $500.
The first place winner’s artwork will be featured in the program at a NTSO concert during the 2024-2025 season.
All artwork entries can be reclaimed by the contestant at the NTSO’s May 19 concert.
For additional information or questions, please email grants@ntso.org.
Contest Inspiration
Contest entries must be inspired by a piece of music from NTSO’s upcoming free May 19, 2024 concert at Moody Performance Hall. Links to YouTube performances of the pieces are provided below.
Pictures at an Exhibition
Composed by Modest Mussorgsky
Orchestrated by Maurice Ravel
Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, composed in 1874 for piano, is one of the finest examples of the link between art and music. It imagines a scene of entering an art gallery and walking between the various pictures. Nearly 50 years later, French composer Maurice Ravel transcribed the piece into this well-known orchestral masterpiece. It is a musical portrayal of an art exhibition where each movement represents a different painting.
Umoja, Anthem of Unity
Composed by Valerie Coleman
American composer Valerie Coleman's orchestral work, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2019. It is the first classical work by a living African American woman performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Umoja is the Swahili word for unity and the first principle of the African Diaspora holiday Kwanzaa. The composer states: “Now more than ever, Umoja has to ring as a strong and beautiful anthem for the world we live in today.”
Concerto for Harp
Composed by Nancy Van de Vate
Celebrated modern Austrian-American composer Nancy Van de Vate composed over 100 pieces during her seven-decade career. Many of her orchestral works were concertos for one or more instruments, such as her Concerto for Harp. In 1968, Van de Vate became only the second woman in the United States to receive a doctorate in music composition.
Contest Deadline
The 2024 NTSO Student Art Contest concludes on April 24, 2024.
Your entry must include a completed entry form affixed to the back of the artwork and either
mailed by April 24, 2024 to:
New Texas Symphony Orchestra
Attn: M. Alderman
P. O. Box 180021
Dallas, Texas 75218
For mailed entries ONLY:
If you do not receive an email confirming receipt of entry within 7 days, please contact grants@ntso.org.
March 10, 2024
Turn In Artwork 2 - 3 PM
Stay for Concert 3 - 5 PM
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Moody Performance Hall
2520 Flora Street
Dallas, Texas 75201
or delivered in person on one of these dates:
April 6, 2024
Turn In Artwork 6 - 7 PM
Stay for Concert 7 - 8 PM
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Latino Cultural Center
2600 Live Oak Street
Dallas, Texas 75204
April 24, 2024
Turn In Artwork 6 - 7 PM
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Sammons Center for the Arts
3630 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75219
Concert & Art Gallery
You are invited to Moody Performance Hall for Platinum: Pictures, the final performance of our 20th Anniversary Season. Come and visit the Art Gallery where top entries of the Art Contest will be displayed in the lobby before the concert.