One of the most popular and eagerly awaited events of the Music Academy of the West’s Summer Festival is “Concerto Night,” when the chosen few of the academy Solo Piano and Instrumental Fellows — with the occasional Vocal Fellow — take their places in front of an orchestra of their peers and proceed to draw gasps and cheers and thunderous applause from the (always) capacity audience.

This year’s “Concerto Night” will take place July 23, with Daniel Hege conducting the Academy Festival Orchestra. I will have more to say about this event as it draws closer.

But before there can be a “chosen few,” there has to be a process of choosing. This is mainly a private process, which very probably begins even before the students arrive at the festival in June, and it stays private and in-house until the selection has been narrowed to a much smaller group of finalists, then it goes public.

This “going public” takes the form of the “Concerto Competition Finals,” which will take up, in two sessions, most of Saturday in Hahn Hall. The morning session ($13) begins at 9:30 a.m. and the afternoon ($14) at 1:45 p.m.

The academy’s treasure trove of collaborative pianists will sit in for the orchestra in this event. Only the “Chamber Music Marathon” (July 30) provides more music for your moolah. Those attending both sessions are encouraged to picnic for lunch on the academy’s beautifully manicured grounds.

For tickets, schedules, programs and all other information about this event, or the Music Academy in general, click here, call 805.969.8787 or visit the Miraflores campus at 1170 Fairway Road in Montecito.

— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com.