The Oz Schools Instrumental Championships (OSIC) is an annual series of state championships, leading to a national final event for the top instrumental students from across Australia. The competition celebrates the talents of piano, strings, drums and guitar students from prep to year 12.

Any student attending school in Australia is eligible for the event! Students can audition, receive a nomination or place 1st, 2nd or 3rd in an Australian eisteddfod (between August 2024 and August 2025) to qualify.

Students who continue in the competition to place 1st or 2nd in an OSIC State Final qualify for the OSIC National Final.

OSIC 2025 qualifying is now open! Students have until their state's specific cut-off date to audition, receive a nomination, or claim an eisteddfod entry.

2025 OSIC State Finals will run across 10 weeks:

Saturday August 23rd - Sunday August 24th: New South Wales (Sydney)

Saturday August 30th - Sunday August 31st: Queensland (Brisbane)

Saturday September 20th - Sunday September 21st: Western Australia (Perth)

Saturday September 27th - Sunday September 28th: South Australia (Adelaide)

Saturday October 18th - Sunday October 26th: Victoria (Melbourne)

The 2025 OSIC National Final will take place on:

Saturday November 29th - Sunday November 30th: National Final (Melbourne)

For a detailed timeline of each state's event, including a competition schedule, click the 'schedule' tab on the OSIC website and follow the prompts.

OSIC 2025 has 4 instrument categories. Students who play more than one instrument are welcome to audition/compete in multiple categories. Categories are as follows:

Piano (piano and keyboard)

Strings (violin, viola, cello, erhu and double bass)

Drums (drum kit and electric drum kit)

Guitar (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar, bass guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, ruan and liuqin)

Yes! Over $50,000 worth of prizes and trophies will be awarded throughout the event. Prizes and trophies are given to placing students in each instrument and age category across all state and national finals.

Students can be selected for OSIC via 3 pathways:

1. Audition (top ranking auditions scored by the OSIC judging panel)

2. Nomination (accepted nominations as determined by the OSIC judging panel)

3. Eisteddfod result (direct entry by obtaining an eligible eisteddfod result - selection from the OSIC judging panel not required)

Yes! Whilst we do not have an OSIC State Final event in each of these 3 states, TAS, ACT and NT students are permitted to audition for any state final in Australia! When submitting an audition or nomination, simply select the state championship you wish to compete in, and if successful you will be invited to compete in your selected state championship!

Yes! Any registered homeschool student in Australia can participate in OSIC.

Yes! We do not have a seperate category for pre-school students, however children who are not yet of school age can still participate in the youngest age category of OSIC - Primary Junior (Prep - Grade 2).