Karrels Instrumental Scholarship

The Ed Karrels Scholarship is a tuition award for music performance available only to students whose academic majors are in areas other than music.

Award Amount equals $8,000 – equally divided and applied towards the Fall and Spring tuition at $4,000 per semester.  Provided the recipient maintains full-time enrollment as a non-music major, a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.0, and a minimum 3.0 grade-point average in private lessons, the scholarship is renewable for a total of four years.

Criteria:

1.    Applicants must be full-time undergraduate students enrolled at or accepted for admission to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

2.    Applicants must be majoring in a discipline other than music. Students with a music minor are eligible.

3.    Applicants must have a keen interest in music and have realistic and identifiable goals for their time at UW Oshkosh and after they graduate.

4.    Applicants must be instrumental musicians that audition into and are accepted into a Department of Music Ensemble group and also take hour-long (two credit) lessons each semester.  First preference will be given to brass performers.

5.    Selected recipients are expected to send an annual correspondence to donor stating:
•    the impact of the award on their future career plans
•    a description of their progress as a musician
•    some of their favorite performances over the last year.  (Include recordings if available)

Application Materials

1.    A Completed Application (submitted via https://uwosh.academicworks.com)
2.    A Recording (3-5 minutes) of Class A or equivalent solo repertoire, with or without accompaniment.*
3.    An essay (up to 500 words) in which the applicant explains how they currently include music and performance in their lives, and how they will continue to include it in their lives after graduating from UWO.

*The recording must be submitted via a link online. If your recording is not already posted online, you can create a free account with youtube.com or dropbox.com to share your recording. Once you upload the file and choose the option to share it, click on “create a link” to generate a URL to include with your scholarship application. Only those serving on the review committee will have access to the link to view your recording. If you have any issues completing these steps, please contact scholarships@uwosh.edu.)

About the Donor

When Ed Karrels came to UW Oshkosh to start his studies in Computer Science, he brought with him a strong passion to continue his active involvement with music that he had developed in high school. Every semester as a resident student Karrels took trombone lessons and he regularly played in a wide range of instrumental groups: Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Trombone Choir, and student Brass Quintets. The culmination of his music studies was a senior trombone recital. He graduated with a degree in Computer Science in 1997.

Ed’s involvement with music did not stop when he left UW Oshkosh. To the contrary: Soon after he began his work as a computer programmer in California he sought and found opportunities to play in local symphony orchestras, pit orchestras, jazz bands and brass quintets.  Music continues to be an important part of his life.