Privacy Policy

Draft for James Stroud's review This policy is a starting point written for the launch of stroudfestival.com. It should be checked against how entries, payments, and tickets are actually handled before the site goes live.

Who we are

The James Stroud Classical Guitar Festival and Youth Competition (“the Festival”, “we”) is organized by James Stroud and hosted by the Cleveland Institute of Music. Questions about this policy go to [email protected].

What we collect

Competition entries. When you apply we collect the applicant's name, date of birth, mailing address, email, and school, the name, email, and address of a parent or guardian, and links to the two preliminary-round videos. Semi-finalists are later asked for a photograph, a short biography, and a signed acceptance notice. This information is used to run the competition: to verify eligibility, to judge the preliminary round, to contact applicants and their families, and to publish the names, photographs, and biographies of semi-finalists, finalists, and prizewinners on this site and in festival materials.

Payments. The entry fee and concert tickets are paid through Stripe. Card details are entered on Stripe's secure forms and are never seen or stored by the Festival. We receive the payer's name, email, and a record of the payment. Stripe's own privacy policy applies to that transaction.

Mailing list. If you sign up for announcements we keep your email address until you unsubscribe. Every message includes an unsubscribe link.

Site analytics. We use privacy-respecting, cookie-free analytics to count visits. No advertising trackers are used.

Applicants under 18

The competition is open to guitarists ages 13 through 18. An application for a minor must be submitted with the knowledge and consent of a parent or guardian, whose contact details are part of the entry form, and all correspondence about the application is copied to that parent or guardian.

Sharing

Applicant information is shared with the competition's judges for the purpose of judging, and with the Cleveland Institute of Music as needed to host the live rounds and festival. We do not sell or rent personal information. Service providers who handle data on our behalf (the form and payment processors and the email provider) are bound by their own privacy terms.

Photographs and recordings

The live rounds and festival concerts are photographed, recorded, and may be streamed. By taking part, semi-finalists and their families agree that these images and recordings may be used by the Festival and the Cleveland Institute of Music to document and promote the competition.

Your choices

You may ask us to correct or delete the information we hold about you by emailing [email protected]. We keep entry records for the competition year and the following year, then delete them, except for the published names and results of semi-finalists and prizewinners.

Last updated TBA at launch.