Ah, now I get it. My ds did two MEA festivals this year (he's a bass player, so Jazz and regular orchestra)and they were a really wonderful experience! I agree that the teachers may have other information, may know criteria better, etc, but I still think that there are two things that you need to address:
1) "I'm having trouble getting a response from XX. I emailed several times. It's been over a week." (in our district, 24 hour email response is the expectation, and the principal takes that seriously).
2) "I feel like there is a lack of information, and a lack of transparency about the music scholarships." I think you can be very sweet, and say, "I realize that I don't have all the information, but I know I'm not the only parent who would like to better understand this process." You can even add, "Ds has had such a great experience with orchestra; he was disappointed he didn't have the chance to learn more about this." If you're really kind, "I don't know if this was handed out in class and DS forgot to give me the information on this; you know how forgetful preteen boys can be."
We had a teacher who basically just blew parents off all the time. The deal was, no one complained, and the principal had no clue. I think it's appropriate to follow up on this, because it's appropriate that you would get a response.
