Scholarship

Sacramento Master Singers
Scholarship for Young Choral Singers 2020

The Sacramento Master Singers Scholarship for Young Choral Singers (formerly known as the Asya Pleskach Scholarship) is designed to support and encourage choral singers from ages 14-22 from the greater Sacramento area (Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado, Placer, San Joaquin and Amador counties). Participants should be a current member of their school choir, church choir or community choir, and show commitment to and leadership in the choral arts.

Scholarship Process

Because of the CoVid-19 crisis, the Sacramento Master Singers have modified the scholarship rather than drop it entirely. The applicants for 2020 will be contacted by Lauren DeGruccio, Scholarship Coordinator, this week to set their virtual interview by appointment. A link will be send to the applicants on Friday giving directions for joining the judges online on Saturday. All applicants should watch carefully for communication/emails/texts from Ms. DeGruccio and respond promptly.

Another change made the scholarship for 2020 is that prize awards will be modified somewhat. The closure of schools made it impossible for many singers to apply; the pool for 2020 is 17 singers, much smaller than usual. The modified Scholarship Awards are listed below:

Scholarship Awards

Ages: 14-16 (no changes)

• 1st place – $200
• 2nd place – $100

Ages: 17-22
(combined age groups with prizes award to 3 of 10 applicants according to his/her age)

In previous years, this group was broken into two separate age categories. For 2020, depending upon the age of the place winner, the applicant will receive the prize amount for his/her age. Examples:

• if a singer age 17 wins first place his/her prize will be $400;
• if a singer age 19 wins second place, his/her prize will be $200;
• if a singer age 22 wins third place, his/her prize will be $200.

Ages: 17-19

• 1st place – $400
• 2nd place – $200
• 3rd place – $100

Ages: 20-22

• 1st place – $750
• 2nd place – $400
• 3rd place – $200

Be sure to sign up for SMS’ emails and follow us on Facebook to keep up on our Scholarship and other matters.

Alas, the lockdown in our region means no celebratory concert with a presentation of awards to winners in Rancho Cordova on Thursday, April 16th, 2020 at YouthSING! It is our sincere hope that the scholarship will be held traditionally in future.