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Scholarships

At Lewis & Clark, we think demonstrating outstanding skill and potential in an instrument, voice part, and/or music composition deserves recognition, which is why we offer merit-based music scholarships, regardless of your major.

These scholarships range from $1,400 per year, which covers the cost of applied lessons, to approximately $6,000 per year. The amount of aid a student receives is contingent upon their audition and financial need.

Scholarships are automatically renewed each academic year, provided the recipient continues to fulfill the obligations of their award: participating in private lessons and performing in the appropriate Lewis & Clark music ensemble, i.e. orchestra, choir, wind symphony, or jazz combos.

Incoming students, transfer students, and current students are eligible to audition once per academic year. Applications are due in January and auditions take place in February. Awarded scholarships will apply in the following fall semester.

Students may audition on more than one instrument if they demonstrate outstanding skill on both. To do so, students must complete two separate applications.

If you have signed up for a campus visit with Admissions and wish to meet with music faculty, please email music@lclark.edu or contact the faculty member directly.

For more information on available scholarships and how to apply, email music@lclark.edu.

Applications

Prospective Lewis & Clark Students

The 2025/2026 application period is closed. Please check back in Fall 2025 for next year’s deadlines.

Transfer Students

Transfer student due dates and guidelines are the same as they are for incoming first-year students (see above).

Audition Requirements

Performance

All performance scholarship auditions should demonstrate your abilities to date. Repertoire criteria are as follows:

All repertoire must be solo repertoire.
- You may submit a recording of yourself playing a solo with an ensemble, but only the duration of the solo will be counted toward the requirement.
If instrumental, please perform 10-15 minutes of music, either one or two short movements or a longer work, demonstrating contrasting styles. Students auditioning on more than one instrument need to submit 10-15 minutes of music for each instrument.
Vocalists should perform at least two separate pieces representing different styles you have studied (for example, aria, art song, and musical theatre selections).
- We want to hear at least one piece in a foreign language and at least one piece using classical vocal technique.

Composition

Music composition scholarship applicants should submit the following:

at least two original scores in PDF format, sent via email to music@lclark.edu
links to sound files (live performances are preferable to midi realizations), submitted through the online application

It is preferable that both scores and sound files are included for each work submitted.

Continuing Student Scholarships/Awards

Current/continuing students are eligible to receive Music Excellence Awards, which are merit-based, limited scholarships and may augment a student’s current scholarship. Current LC students should apply for a music scholarship using the Continuing Student Music Scholarship Application Form. Audition requirements can be found in the above section. Continuing students must submit their audition materials by April 11th, 2025.

Music majors who receive merit scholarships will have their primary instrument lessons paid for as a Tholen Lesson Scholarship. Music majors who do not receive a merit scholarship will receive waivers for their primary instrument lessons. The department will also waive the cost of up to four semesters of piano lessons. Music majors who receive scholarships and wish to take lessons for a third instrument that they study seriously can petition the department for an additional waiver.

Named Scholarships

We offer several named music scholarships designed by our donors to foster excellence in a variety of musical areas. Students of all majors are eligible for named scholarships.

The Bailey Concertmaster Scholarship was funded in 2011 by Bruce Bailey and Mariel Bailey to celebrate classical music and provide an incentive and a reward for the concertmaster of the Lewis & Clark orchestra.

Mariel Jensen Bailey received her Bachelor of Music degree at Lewis & Clark in 1972, studying with Dr. Paul Bellam. She received a Master of Music degree from Yale University in 1975. Mariel was a member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s first violin section for 44 years. Her husband was a cellist with the same group for 60 years. Mariel and Bruce are retired and enjoy reading, the outdoors, and spending time with their dogs.

Selection

The scholarship will provide a merit-based award to the student who is named the concertmaster or mistress in the Lewis & Clark Orchestra (first chair violin). The selection will be made by the orchestra conductor, in consultation with the violin instructor and the music department chair.

Criteria:

a. Merit-based with selection by music faculty

b. Recipient must occupy first chair violin in the LC orchestra

Size of the Award

This fund is endowed and the amount of the award will depend on the endowment earnings and Lewis & Clark’s spending guidelines, but will usually be about $2,500.

Student Recipient Commitment

The recipient of this award will:

a. Annually write to the donor to apprise of his/her progress at Lewis & Clark

b. Invite the donor to at least one orchestral performance and his/her/their senior recital

The Reinhard and Constance Pauly Orchestral Strings Scholarship was established in 2013 to enhance the Lewis & Clark strings program by providing merit-based tuition scholarships as well as lesson scholarships to students of the violin, viola, cello, and double bass.

Dr. Reinhard Pauly was a long-time member of the music faculty where he taught music history and chaired the department. He also played viola with the Portland Opera Orchestra for many years. Students may be awarded a Pauly scholarship regardless of financial need or academic major. Recipients must enroll for lessons in their instrument and play in the orchestra each term they are on campus. They may renew their scholarship by demonstrating satisfactory progress as determined by their principal teacher.

The Riley Zickel Endowed Music Scholarship was established in 2017 in memory of Riley Zickel to ensure that financial need is not a barrier for talented music students studying at Lewis & Clark. Riley went missing while backpacking alone in Oregon’s Jefferson Mountain wilderness. Riley was compassionate, kind, and a creative person. He had a rich sense of humor and was passionate about the simplicity, beauty, and peace that he found in the wilderness. A talented musician who began playing drums at age four, he eventually learned to play the piano, bass, and guitar. Although he majored in chemistry, he remained an integral part of the music department and was the recipient of a music scholarship.

This scholarship supports students with financial need who are studying music. Scholarship recipients will be informed in the fall of each school year if their music scholarship is being supported by this fund.

Cynthia Lois Brown Organ Scholarships were established to support students interested in studying the organ as a part of a liberal arts education. The late Cynthia Lois Brown, a student of Lewis & Clark organist and Professor of Music Emeritus, Dr. Lee Garrett, provided the endowment for these scholarships.

Recipients do not need to major in music, but they must have prior keyboard experience in order to take full advantage of the College’s rich program of learning about the organ and its music (there are three fine pipe organs at Lewis & Clark). Scholarships are awarded on the basis of both merit and need and may be renewed, pending students’ satisfactory progress.

Photo below: the Casavant Organ located in the Agnes Flanagan Chapel

Majors

Minors