How to enter

  1. Create your KVEMA-account.
  2. List your band or bands (yes, you can participate with more than one band. It’s jazz).
  3. Create a band profile (for every band you want to participate with), by uploading the required info on the form.
    1. You can add, remove and improve that profile until March 31, 23:59. Then your registration is final and up for votes!;
    2. Please use English language, so our international Jurors can understand who you are;
    3. Add the band members and a comprehensive bio of the band;
    4. Upload your band’s favorite repertoire list (so we can let you know what we like to hear played live from you, might you make it to the finale);
    5. Upload your media (pictures, audio, video)
      1. If you only have rehearsal room recordings of your band, that’s fine. As long as we can hear what’s happening.
      2. You can enter as much as 10 different recordings so the jury can hear how versatile your band is. You can pick the songs. No mandatory songs;
      3. Please make sure to present your band as convincing as possible. The jurors have seen many bands before, try to stand out!
  4. Complete the questionnaire before March 31.
  5. That’s all folks

Who can participate?

The Karel van Eerd Music Award is an international band contest for jazz bands from all over the world. Jazz includes a wide spectrum of influences and style. At the KVEMA, we welcome every single one of these styles.

The aim of this award is to encourage artists and bands to deliver the best possible live show every time they find themselves in front of an audience. For that, artists should be aware for what kind of audience they will be performing, so they know how to win them over and create fans and followers that every artist needs to build a professional career in music.

Obviously the winner of the Karel van Eerd Music Award will be a great band with skilled musicians and a well produced live show. What the Award’s jury will focus on too though, is how convincing each performance is from an audience’s standpoint. After all, end of the day it’s the fans of the band that are the foundation of a successful music career.

Also, call us old-fashioned, artists that recognize New Orleans as the birthplace of jazz and display the versatility of the genre stand a bigger chance of winning.

New Orleans? Some might think now we are talking strictly classic jazz. They are mistaking. It’s 2022 now in New Orleans too. Jazz has evolved into many forms. We would like to hear and see the soul, the fun and improvisational skills that have been the main ingredients of New Orleans Jazz right from the start. So an up-beat delivery will probably win more points that an introvert group of musicians, regardless how skilled they are and how amazing their music.

It doesn’t matter to us if your band is made up from professional musicians, amateurs or since when your band exists. It also doesn’t matter to us where your band is from. Japan? Fine! What is important to us is that your band has the ambition to perform all over Europe and create an increasing fan base to benefit from on future tours. In short: you want to compete for a very real chance to kickstart your career as a performing artist in Europe.

What also matters: the final round of the competition for the Karel van Eerd Music Award will be held in front of an audience and, obviously, the jury. The finale of the second edition is planned for June 2, 2022, your band must be available to actually show up and perform on that date. If, due to covid-19 restrictions that are still in place, the final event will have to be rescheduled we will inform you immediately. Read the privacy statement and the FAQ section carefully before you enter.

How does it work?

Entering the competition is simple: follow the steps listed above. After the registration period ends, March 31, 23:59, our jurors will go through all the entries and decide which bands will move on to the next round aka semi-finals.

Once that is decided and communicated to all contestants (April 4) the fans and public can vote on their favorite band based on their band profile. This can be done until April 20. In the meantime, the jury will assess all the semifinalists and give their scores. Ones the public votes are counted and combined with the jury’s scores, the finalists will be announced on April 4.

These four bands will be then invited to perform in front of the jury on June 2, 2022.