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SIFAA COMPETITION INFO
Competitions play a great role in motivating young performers to showcase their talents and offers many more rewards rather than simply winning a prize.
SIFAA is pleased to announce that it is organizing its 10th Annual Talent Competition for our up-and-coming youth carnatic musicians. Competitions play a great role in motivating young performers to showcase their talents and offer many more rewards, not just winning a prize. Participants will gain substantial experience to sing in front of the judges and audience, improve stage presence,and gain more confidence. In addition to the above, this competition is also designed to provide a platform for youth musicians to receive valuable constructive feedback from notable and renowned professional carnatic musicians. Their feedback and guidance will help the participants understand their strengths and identify areas of improvement. The experience gained from participating in these competitions will meaningfully g shape each student's musical journey. SIFAA’s core objective to host this talent competition is to support, nurture young talent, celebrate dedication and build a supportive community of young artists.
Date of the Competition - Sept 26th, 2026
Venue – West Cary Middle School, Cary, NC
Time - TBD
Age should be calculated as of Sept 1st, 2026
**NEW CATEGORY this year: Advanced Team Ragam Thanam Pallavi**
Venue – West Cary Middle School, Cary, NC
Time - TBD
Age should be calculated as of Sept 1st, 2026
**NEW CATEGORY this year: Advanced Team Ragam Thanam Pallavi**
REGISTRATION
*Please read all the guidelines before registration*. Registration link is at the bottom of the guidelines!!
Registration is open now and will close on Sept 13th 2026 at 08:00 PM EDT. Please start planning accordingly to ensure that a completed registration form is submitted before the deadline.
If you have any questions, please email them to competition@sifaa.org
Competition Guidelines and requirements for participation
The 2026 competition fee is $40 per participant per category. However, children of SIFAA members pay only $20 per participant per category. This discount applies for family or Core membership only. Please see details below regarding fee for the new Team competition. The payment is due at the time of the Registration: When the payment is made thru PayPal, you will receive an automated email confirmation. Please save that as we may need it to verify at a later time. No need to forward it to us unless we request.
The competition will be in-person. .
Senior, Junior, Sub-junior participation is open only to North Carolina residents.
Junior Varnam (ages 11-13) guidelines are:
Adi Talam Varnams only
Not to exceed 5 minutes of presentation
Two Chatusra Kalams (no tisram,kandam etc) for Pallavi, Anupallavi and Muktayiswaram part
Single Kalai Chatrusram rendition of Charanam and associated swarams
For Varnams with sahityam/lyrics attached to Muktayiswaram and Charanam Swarams, please do NOT sing the sahityam part to keep consistency across presentations. (Ex Daru and Pada Varnams)
Advanced Percussion Accompaniment category is restricted to participants in the age group 14-22; this replaces the Advanced Percussion category from previous years. Guidelines are:
Participants are required to provide 2 talas out of Adi, Rupakam, and Misra Chapu
Please note this is not a planned accompaniment presentation by the competition participant; it is essentially ‘All Things Unplanned’
There will be a main performer who will sing a krithi matching to the tala the Judges decide
Participants should bring a Mridangam tuned to ‘C#’ Shruthi and come prepared to accompany for Krithi, Neraval, and Swarams
Judges will pose friendly challenges to the participants as they accompany the main performer
Advanced Vocal and Instrumental category is also restricted to participants in the age group 14-22; Guidelines are:
Participants are required to provide 2 choices
However, this will also not be a fully planned presentation by the competition participant; it is essentially ‘All Things Unplanned’
Judges may ask the participants to go back and forth between the 2 choices and will pose friendly challenges to the participants during the presentation
Advanced Team Ragam Thanam Pallavi is a new category we are introducing this year. Teams should be composed of 3 members (Vocal/Instrument/Percussion, Instrument/Instrument/Percussion, Vocal/Vocal/Percussion, or Instrument/Percussion/Percussion). Team members can be in only one team. In this inaugural year, we are restricting it to 4 teams, so the first four teams who apply get in. This category is also restricted to participants in the age group 14-22; Guidelines are:
This inaugural effort is to encourage team building, team creativity, team practice, and team presentation.
Participants are required to provide 2 choices; specify just the main Ragam
Manodharma and group interplay/cohesion/balance will be important
However, this will also not be a fully planned presentation by the competition participants; it is essentially ‘All Things Unplanned’
Judges may ask the participants to go back and forth between the 2 choices and will pose friendly challenges to the participants during the presentation
Fee is $60 per team irrespective of SIFAA membership status
Previous Advanced category winners are eligible to participate if they are in the age group of 14-22.
Please note that SIFAA will not be involved in forming teams.
Advanced Category participants will initially be open only to NC residents and they should register as per the procedure outlined here. Based on the number of NC residents who register for this category, Out of State participants may be allowed to participate on a first-come first-served basis and should reach out to SIFAA by email without registering now.
Krithi categories can register only Krithis.
Participants should meet the age limits of the category they wish to compete. However, the First place winners from a previous year can choose to participate either in their age group or the next age group (For ex. A First place Junior vocal winner from 2024 can compete in either Junior level or Senior level vocal, even if they are younger than the age limit set for Senior level, but cannot compete in both levels). Also, participants can compete only in Senior or Advanced but not both for the same category (For example, Senior Violin and Advanced Violin is not allowed but Senior Violin and Advanced Vocal is allowed).
If a participant has previously won first place in an Advanced category, then he/she is not eligible to participate again in that same category. However, previous Advanced percussion winners can join in the Advanced Percussion Accompaniment this year. Previous Advanced category vocal/Instrumental winners can join the Advanced Team category.
Each individual is allowed to participate in multiple categories within the age group they are registering in. For example, the same student can participate in Junior Vocal and Junior instrumental. Please fill out a separate registration and payment for each.
Please note there are no separate categories for specific instruments, etc. SIFAA reserves the right to combine or split categories before the competition based on the number of participants registered.
Advanced Vocal and Instrumental might be viewed as one category either due to the number of participants or due to judges’ feedback. Advanced Percussion Accompaniment might be viewed similarly no matter what the percussion instrument (Mridhangam, Kanjira, Ghatam)
Participants should have the approval of their teachers before registering.
Competition is open only to Individual participants; group participation is not allowed.
The participants' orders in each competition will occur randomly. Anyone who misses their slot will be moved to the end of that competition.
Each participant should make their own arrangements for Shruthi.
In ALL categories for Vocal and Instrumental, the participant must specify two choices from which the judges will decide which should be presented. For Sub-Junior Percussion, the participant can specify one tala. All other Percussion categories have to specify two choices of participants choices. You will have the opportunity till Sept 20th to provide your choices. We will send another form to get this information after the registration deadline.
Any changes after it has been finalized will not be permitted after the deadline for choices.
Time limits will be strictly enforced.
All instruments should be tuned prior to your turn in the competition. No separate time will be given for tuning.
Decisions of the judges will be final. Judges pool comprises out of town Carnatic music teachers/artists and professional artists from India.
The Registration fee is non-refundable. If a participant is not able to participate, the registration fee will be a tax-deductible donation to SIFAA. SIFAA will provide a receipt for tax credits if requested.
Prizes will be announced after the SIFAA featured concert by the famed Mysore Brothers. This concert is ticketed for non-members and free for SIFAA members, The student participants will be able to attend for free.
First place Winners of the Senior and Advanced categories except Thillana will be invited to participate in future SIFAA programs (Senior - 20 min concert and Advanced - 1 hour concert). The New Team competition winners will get an opportunity to perform as a team in the upcoming year(s).SIFAA reserves the right to update the criteria for the competition.
Registration is open now and will close on Sept 13th 2026 at 08:00 PM EDT. Please start planning accordingly to ensure that a completed registration form is submitted before the deadline.
If you have any questions, please email them to competition@sifaa.org
The 2026 competition fee is $40 per participant per category. However, children of SIFAA members pay only $20 per participant per category. This discount applies for family or Core membership only. Please see details below regarding fee for the new Team competition. The payment is due at the time of the Registration: When the payment is made thru PayPal, you will receive an automated email confirmation. Please save that as we may need it to verify at a later time. No need to forward it to us unless we request.
The competition will be in-person. .
Senior, Junior, Sub-junior participation is open only to North Carolina residents.
Junior Varnam (ages 11-13) guidelines are:
Adi Talam Varnams only
Not to exceed 5 minutes of presentation
Two Chatusra Kalams (no tisram,kandam etc) for Pallavi, Anupallavi and Muktayiswaram part
Single Kalai Chatrusram rendition of Charanam and associated swarams
For Varnams with sahityam/lyrics attached to Muktayiswaram and Charanam Swarams, please do NOT sing the sahityam part to keep consistency across presentations. (Ex Daru and Pada Varnams)
Advanced Percussion Accompaniment category is restricted to participants in the age group 14-22; this replaces the Advanced Percussion category from previous years. Guidelines are:
Participants are required to provide 2 talas out of Adi, Rupakam, and Misra Chapu
Please note this is not a planned accompaniment presentation by the competition participant; it is essentially ‘All Things Unplanned’
There will be a main performer who will sing a krithi matching to the tala the Judges decide
Participants should bring a Mridangam tuned to ‘C#’ Shruthi and come prepared to accompany for Krithi, Neraval, and Swarams
Judges will pose friendly challenges to the participants as they accompany the main performer
Advanced Vocal and Instrumental category is also restricted to participants in the age group 14-22; Guidelines are:
Participants are required to provide 2 choices
However, this will also not be a fully planned presentation by the competition participant; it is essentially ‘All Things Unplanned’
Judges may ask the participants to go back and forth between the 2 choices and will pose friendly challenges to the participants during the presentation
Advanced Team Ragam Thanam Pallavi is a new category we are introducing this year. Teams should be composed of 3 members (Vocal/Instrument/Percussion, Instrument/Instrument/Percussion, Vocal/Vocal/Percussion, or Instrument/Percussion/Percussion). Team members can be in only one team. In this inaugural year, we are restricting it to 4 teams, so the first four teams who apply get in. This category is also restricted to participants in the age group 14-22; Guidelines are:
This inaugural effort is to encourage team building, team creativity, team practice, and team presentation.
Participants are required to provide 2 choices; specify just the main Ragam
Manodharma and group interplay/cohesion/balance will be important
However, this will also not be a fully planned presentation by the competition participants; it is essentially ‘All Things Unplanned’
Judges may ask the participants to go back and forth between the 2 choices and will pose friendly challenges to the participants during the presentation
Fee is $60 per team irrespective of SIFAA membership status
Previous Advanced category winners are eligible to participate if they are in the age group of 14-22.
Please note that SIFAA will not be involved in forming teams.
Advanced Category participants will initially be open only to NC residents and they should register as per the procedure outlined here. Based on the number of NC residents who register for this category, Out of State participants may be allowed to participate on a first-come first-served basis and should reach out to SIFAA by email without registering now.
Krithi categories can register only Krithis.
Participants should meet the age limits of the category they wish to compete. However, the First place winners from a previous year can choose to participate either in their age group or the next age group (For ex. A First place Junior vocal winner from 2024 can compete in either Junior level or Senior level vocal, even if they are younger than the age limit set for Senior level, but cannot compete in both levels). Also, participants can compete only in Senior or Advanced but not both for the same category (For example, Senior Violin and Advanced Violin is not allowed but Senior Violin and Advanced Vocal is allowed).
If a participant has previously won first place in an Advanced category, then he/she is not eligible to participate again in that same category. However, previous Advanced percussion winners can join in the Advanced Percussion Accompaniment this year. Previous Advanced category vocal/Instrumental winners can join the Advanced Team category.
Each individual is allowed to participate in multiple categories within the age group they are registering in. For example, the same student can participate in Junior Vocal and Junior instrumental. Please fill out a separate registration and payment for each.
Please note there are no separate categories for specific instruments, etc. SIFAA reserves the right to combine or split categories before the competition based on the number of participants registered.
Advanced Vocal and Instrumental might be viewed as one category either due to the number of participants or due to judges’ feedback. Advanced Percussion Accompaniment might be viewed similarly no matter what the percussion instrument (Mridhangam, Kanjira, Ghatam)
Participants should have the approval of their teachers before registering.
Competition is open only to Individual participants; group participation is not allowed.
The participants' orders in each competition will occur randomly. Anyone who misses their slot will be moved to the end of that competition.
Each participant should make their own arrangements for Shruthi.
In ALL categories for Vocal and Instrumental, the participant must specify two choices from which the judges will decide which should be presented. For Sub-Junior Percussion, the participant can specify one tala. All other Percussion categories have to specify two choices of participants choices. You will have the opportunity till Sept 20th to provide your choices. We will send another form to get this information after the registration deadline.
Any changes after it has been finalized will not be permitted after the deadline for choices.
Time limits will be strictly enforced.
All instruments should be tuned prior to your turn in the competition. No separate time will be given for tuning.
Decisions of the judges will be final. Judges pool comprises out of town Carnatic music teachers/artists and professional artists from India.
The Registration fee is non-refundable. If a participant is not able to participate, the registration fee will be a tax-deductible donation to SIFAA. SIFAA will provide a receipt for tax credits if requested.
Prizes will be announced after the SIFAA featured concert by the famed Mysore Brothers. This concert is ticketed for non-members and free for SIFAA members, The student participants will be able to attend for free.
First place Winners of the Senior and Advanced categories except Thillana will be invited to participate in future SIFAA programs (Senior - 20 min concert and Advanced - 1 hour concert). The New Team competition winners will get an opportunity to perform as a team in the upcoming year(s).SIFAA reserves the right to update the criteria for the competition.