Organised by the Waverley Music Eisteddfod Inc. Committee
2025 Festival Dates:
Solos: 2 - 22 August 2025
Venues: St John's Uniting Church and Salvation Army Waverley Temple
Ensembles Day: Saturday 9 August 2025
Choral Day: Monday 11 August 2025
Venue: Salvation Army Waverley Temple
Entries open 21 April and close 8 June 2025
The Monash Youth Music Festival
Welcome!
The Monash Youth Music Festival is a significant annual music festival held on the lands of the Wurundjeri People in the leafy City of Monash, Victoria Australia. This Festival draws well over a thousand young musicians from all over Melbourne each August to compete in forty-nine disciplines including Ensemble and Choral competitions, solo competitions and non-competitive sections. In 2024 we introduced a Guzheng competition for the very first time, and we may indeed be the first eisteddfod in Australia to do so.
Last year, we received over 890 section entries - an all time record - from both solo and ensemble entrants, amounting to around 1661 musicians! Please note that we are now preparing for the 2025 Festival.
Please keep up-to-date with this year's Festival by subscribing to our free e-News! Our e-News will tell you when the Festival entries open again.
Monash Youth Music Festival Annual General Meeting

Invitation
Dear MYMF Sponsor, Volunteer, Committee Member, Teacher and Parent,
You are cordially invited to the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Waverley Music Eisteddfod Inc Committee, organisers of the Monash Youth Music Festival.
This is the largest annual youth music event in the City of Monash, and has given many of Australia's international and local musicians essential performance experience since 1978.
We would like to share with you our plans for this year's Festival. Please join us to enjoy live music and refreshments and to hear our brilliant guest speaker and a brief Annual General Meeting.
Wheelers Hill Library Meeting Room
860 Ferntree Gully Road (near corner Jells Road)
Wheelers Hill
Victoria 3150
Australia
Monday 24th March 2025
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Please RSVP before Friday 21 March
Guest Speaker Samuel Cairnduff!
Samuel Cairnduff is an experienced arts and cultural management professional, a lecturer and consultant, who has worked internationally as a leader and manager in the arts. His work focuses on the intersection between culture and society, grounded in a passionate belief in the capacity of cultural institutions to transform lives and communities through ethical and empathetic engagement.
Samuel’s PhD research examines the concept of cultural leadership in Australian symphony orchestras; the outcome will be a new model of leadership for performing arts organisations.
Returning to Australia in 2016, Samuel was Director of Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs at the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2022. He led strategy in the areas of audience development, marketing, sales and communications.
Samuel has sat as a director on the boards of Bethlehem House Hobart; the internationally recognised baroque ensemble Van Diemen’s Band and is a member of the City of Launceston Cultural Advisory Committee. He holds a BA (LaTrobe, Media and Cinema), an MBA (Deakin), is a member of AICD and an alumnus of the 2018 Tasmanian Leaders Program and the 2020 Australia Council Arts Leaders Program cohort.
He lectures in Arts and Cultural Management at Deakin University and teaches media and communications at the University of Melbourne.
Samuel has a parallel background as a professional pianist; he spent 5 years performing onboard cruise ships, and was engaged as resident pianist at the Dorchester, Claridges and Savoy hotels in London. He recorded a 6-CD set of solo piano music in 2012, released worldwide by Silva Screen Records.
You can read read Samuel's full bio here:

Our guest speaker, Samuel Cairnduff

Please go to our handy checklist to make sure you have everything in order.
Please update your music title and composer in STARDOM.
Make copies of your sheet music for the adjudicator and accompanist if you are using one.
It is not compulsory, but our accompanists will help make your performance a wonderful experience! Most soloists perform with an accompanist. Contact yours today!
If you are in the Mini Recitals,
rehearsal sessions are available in the morning of the Mini Recital Day.
Where is the Festival?
All SOLO events are held at Huntingtower School - enter via WAIMARIE DRIVE MAIN GATE!
CHORAL and ENESMBLE sections are held at the Salvation Army Waverley Temple.
Click here to go to our Venue page to see our map.
DO NOT BE LATE! An entrant may be disqualified if not ready to perform when called. (See RULE 11).
Call your Registrar if you are having any issues.
Audience Tickets
Audience tickets go on sale JULY.
Come along to watch and support our young musicians!
Adults (over 16 years) – $5.00
Performers (Entrants) – free
Children (under 16) – free
MULTI-PASS FAMILY TICKET – $20
Festival Programme

Our beautiful Festival Programme includes all sections and every performer. Please buy a Programme. They are only $5 each.
All proceeds go to the cost of venue hire, adjudicators and accompanists, and running our Festival.
Thought about VOLUNTEERING?
Read the Rules!
If you enter our Festival, you must agree with all the Rules and Conditions of Entry!
All entrants must behave with kindness, courtesy, and respect for all other entrants at all times.
Entrants and audience members must remain still and quiet while others are performing.
Where is the Festival?
All SOLO events are held at Huntingtower School - enter via WAIMARIE DRIVE MAIN GATE!
CHORAL and ENESMBLE sections are held at the Salvation Army Waverley Temple.
Click here to go to our Venue page to see our map.
DO NOT BE LATE! An entrant may be disqualified if not ready to perform when called. (See RULE 11).
Call your Registrar if you are having any issues.
Our Festival is not-for-profit and is organised and run by a volunteer committee. Help us continue our important work and promote your company's goods or services.
Read our Sponsorship Prospectus!
Community Service Ideas


Looking for International Baccalaureate (IB) CAS community service or Duke of Edinburgh ideas? Why not hold a mini concert for the elderly? Just go to our Performance Opportunities page and fill out the Expression of Interest form. Participating Aged Care facilities are listed there so you can choose one or two closest to you. Perform some of your favourite music for our dear senior citizens!
Attention aged care providers - join our free Program!
Would you like free mini concerts
held in your facilities to delight your residents? If so, partner us to provide performance opportunities to our selected musicians beyond the Festival!
To find out more, CLICK HERE!
When to enter
Registrations open 24 April and close 11 June or earlier - each section will close when full, so get in early!
How to enter
When entries open, go to STARDOM and log in.
You should see Monash Youth Music Festival listed.
Audience tickets
Come along and watch the entrants! Audience tickets
go on sale in July.
See below for more info!
Entries open 21 April and close 8 June 2025
Entrant Registrations are via STARDOM only.
If you are new to STARDOM please go to STARDOM today to register in preparation for your first time entry to our Monash Youth Music Festival and to other eisteddfods and music festivals.
NOTE! Entries close for each section when full
Entries close for each section as soon as it is full. Ensure you register early, and enter all the sections you wish to enter as soon as possible, as each section has limited capacity. Once a section is FULL, STARDOM will display "SOLD OUT" and you will not be able to enter that section.
Details on how to enter and register for the various sections on offer are on our How to Enter page.
What happens after close of entries?
About 2 or 3 weeks after close of entries, every entrant will receive a Notice of Appearance which will have their session start time.
Please note entrants are expected to arrive to check-in 30 minutes before the session start time.
Audience ticket sales open 1 July 2025.
Audience Tickets are via TRYBOOKING.
Family, friends and general public are warmly welcome to watch our "superstars of the future" perform at the Monash Youth Music Festival! Audience admission is by ticket only, and are available from Trybooking. Please note that these tickets are only for watching performances, not for entrant registrations!
Adults (16 years and over) – $5.00
Performers (Entrants) – free
Children (under 16) – free
MULTI-PASS FAMILY TICKET (unlimited access to all events) – $20

Thought about VOLUNTEERING?
"In praise of the eisteddfod volunteer"

This delightful article "In praise of the eisteddfod volunteer" written by By Jess Carrascalao Heard, explains perfectly why we do what
we do.
The article first appeared in CutCommon e-magazine.
We are sure you will find the article illuminating!
Our generous sponsors are the foundation upon which our Festival depends. Read our Sponsors page to see those businesses and individuals who have stepped up and given back to our community.
Please support these businesses whenever you can!

E04 Senior Small Ensemble Winners for 2023!

Prizewinners - The Bradford Trio

Holberg Ensemble performs at the PAC in 2022

E04 Senior Small Ensemble Winners for 2023!