Tom Haraldsen
Salt Lake Business Journal
In celebration of its 90th anniversary, Utah First Credit Union has created a music competition to award two college scholarships to deserving students for next school year.
The Utah First Music Scholarship program will award one student a first-place $20,000 scholarship to Southern Utah University, and a second-place finisher will receive a $10,000 scholarship to SUU.
The program was announced at the One Utah Summit earlier this year and winners will be honored at a ceremony next August at the summit. The winners will also be given the opportunity to perform at the summit.
“It’s another way that we want to kick off our 90th anniversary celebration,” said UFCU spokesperson Julia Olson. “Following in the footsteps of what we originally wanted to do to bring the community together, we feel music is a great way to do that.”
Rules for entry are fairly simple. Entrants need to post a short live performance video, three minutes or less, on TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube shorts. Those entering can sing, shred, strum, spit bars and mix beats, and they can use accompaniment from a fellow musician or a band. They should introduce themselves at the start of the video, tag it using hashtags #UtahFirstMusicScholarship + #SUUmusic, then submit a copy of the video at https://utahfirst.com/music-scholarship-2025/.
“With SUU, we started having conversations with the folks down there, and they have a really good arts program,“ Olson said. “For 2026, they’re actually in the process of building this beautiful new music building, and we wanted to help bring some visibility to that. We’ve done scholarships before but not aligned with music, so this is our first year offering a music scholarship,” Olson said.
From the entrants, 10 finalists will be chosen — five as fan favorites and five based on raw talent — and then a panel of judges consisting of SUU professors, executives from Utah First Credit Union and local musicians, will choose the winners. Olson said judges will look at tone production (fullness, richness, control and nuance); technical ability (accuracy in notes, rhythms, dynamics and articulations); and expressiveness of emotion, musical gestures and phrasing.
The scholarships will go for “new kids on the block,” for freshman and transfer students able to attend SUU’s music program in the fall of 2026. Entrants must be 16 years and older, and current SUU students aren’t eligible for the scholarships. The contest is open through April 20, 2026, and winners will be announced a couple of weeks after contest closure.
“We’re excited to support the university and what they are doing down there for music,” Olson said. “They’re very excited about their students and their success, and so are we.”