What's New: Certificate of Merit® 2019-2020

2018-2019 Recap:

The Certificate of Merit® (CM) program had another banner year with over 1500 students participating in recitals at the Annual Convention and 10 new inductees to the Young Artist Guild.

New to the 2018-2019 CM year was the State Honors Award. The State Honors Award recognizes students who receive at least 80% on their Theory Tests and receive at least a "Good" for Technique, Sight Reading/Singing, and Repertoire. This year, 62% of students received the State Honors Award.

What's new for 2019-2020 year?

Starting this year, parents are able to make a payment for a CM evaluation once the application is created. The new payment deadline will be November 5, 2019. Parents are welcome to submit a payment at any time from October 1 - November 5, 2019 after an application has been started. Information such as grade, CM level and instrument cannot be changed after a payment.

Also new this year, applications for Make Up Evaluations (MUP) will be processed through the online system and will be available to all students in all grades and CM Levels for legitimate reasons (i.e. extreme emergencies, such as serious illness, injury, or mandated school conflicts). The approval process is completed at the State level with the online MUP application which is submitted by the parents.

Dates to Know:

CM Application Open - October 1, 2019

CM Application Period Closes - October 31, 2019

CM Application Fee Deadline - November 5, 2019

Branch CM Evaluations Begin - February 15, 2020

Branch CM Evaluations End - March 29, 2020