Competitions w/o age limit

[pianowolfi]

Do you know of any piano competitions that have no age limit? Every advice welcome!

Greetings

Pianowolfi

[thalbergmad]

Yes, the World Marbles Championships which is held every year in England.

There is no age limit.

Hope this helps.

Thal

[dnephi]

You can find their website here: https://www.kulicky.com/world-marbles-championship/

You can see an instructional video on how to play here: https://www.kulicky.com/world-marbles-championship/marble-game-rules-video.php

[pianolist]

Well, no age limit maybe, but you can't enter if you've lost them.

AMICA (the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors' Association) has a Pumper Contest each year at its convention, which has no age limit. I've been an adjudicator a few times, and we gave the prize in 1992 (Chicago) to a guy who pedalled "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". He was dressed as a gangster, with violin case, and halfway through he took out a very large gun and shot at me. JC, it was loud, but I guess it was a blank, because I survived.

[thalbergmad]

It is a shame you are in Germany as today is the World Gurning Championships.

https://www.thecumbriadirectory.com/Cumbria_Traditions/Gurning/Gurning.php

All you have to do is put your head through a horses collar and pull the funniest face you can.

You would be good at that

England is a strange place.

Thal

[pianowolfi]

you guys are pretty funny  I meant piano competitions. lol

[thalbergmad]

Oh, PIANO competitions.

You are too ancient for that old chap.

Thal

[pianowolfi]

Oh, PIANO competitions.

You are too ancient for that old chap.

Thal

I've heard there are some

[pianolist]

Why don't we start one? With a minimum age limit of 58.

[franz_]

Grand Concours des amateurs de piano   in Paris.

[pianolist]

This is the one.

https://www.concours-piano.com/index1.html

The English version is frightful. If you want to read the rules, you need to look up under "Payment", which is the wrong translation of the French "Règlement". Also the English deadline is a year out of date ... so you still have time, lieber Freund!

I was on a concert tour in Germany once, and at the end of a meal, a friend asked the waiter for "Der Schnabel". It does mean the bill, but it's the duck variety.

[pianowolfi]

This is the one.

https://www.concours-piano.com/index1.html

The English version is frightful. If you want to read the rules, you need to look up under "Payment", which is the wrong translation of the French "Règlement". Also the English deadline is a year out of date ... so you still have time, lieber Freund!

I was on a concert tour in Germany once, and at the end of a meal, a friend asked the waiter for "Der Schnabel". It does mean the bill, but it's the duck variety.

 

Thanks, that's helpful.

[pianolist]

Oh, what a bummer! There's no age limit, but if you want to win the prize in the virtuoso class, you have to have been educated in a French musical college. That's you disqualified then, grandad.

You have to read some of this site, especially in English. The 2nd Price in the Level Virtuosity in 2004 was won by Shits Satake from Japan. Here's the start of a biography of Stephan Blet, who was one of the judges at some point. He is evidently a "compositeur", which they have translated as a "Type-Setter".

Stephan Blet was born in Paris 9 the Mars 1969.
Disciple of the large American pianist Byron Janis who discovers in him invites an exceptional talent and it in New York in the Eighties, it begins since 1986 a brilliant career from concert performer in the whole world.
Its recitals with the Theater of the Fields-Élysées or the Gaveau Room are worth an immense success near the public to him which reserves to him long “standing ovations” as at the time of its memorable “Liszt marathon” in February 1987 when it is greyish-brown more than thirty minutes!

[pianowolfi]

grandad.

Now how old are you then, Methusalah? Not a teenie anymore I guess.

[pianolist]

Ach, Mensch! Mit meinem langen, weißen Bart seh' ich wie dem guten Sankt Nikolaus aus. Du hast Recht, Opa, nur meine dritten Zähne sind ziemlich jung.

Aber, du bist Basler, hab' ich auf google.de g'funden. Oos der Schwyz. Ich wor '87 drey Monarte bey der Socher Stiftig im Münsterplotz.

Schoene Gruesse aus London.

[pianowolfi]

Ach, Mensch! Mit meinem langen, weißen Bart seh' ich wie dem guten Sankt Nikolaus aus. Du hast Recht, Opa, nur meine dritten Zähne sind ziemlich jung.

Aber, du bist Basler, hab' ich auf google.de g'funden. Oos der Schwyz. Ich wor '87 drey Monarte bey der Socher Stiftig im Münsterplotz.

Schoene Gruesse aus London.

 

[pianowolfi]

Now that's really something. In the Sacher Stiftung. Are you a musicologist? And may I order you as St. Nikolaus to punish the kids who don't practise their christmas carols this year?

Greetings from Baaaaasel

[pianolist]

Just sent you a PM, old chap.

[pianolist]

This seems to be a thread for anarchic oldies, so what the hell. Perhaps we'll get back to competitions later. There's no rush at our age!

As Thal said earlier, England is a strange place, but then so is Switzerland. One has an impression of the Swiss being terribly polite and rather formal. I got a very small scholarship to study for three months at the Paul Sacher Foundation, in order to look at all Stravinsky's papers relating to the pianola. Stravinsky worked with pianolas for fifteen years of his life, and re-wrote many of his major ballets for the instrument. It's the least known part of his life's work, and people still underestimate it.

The sort of scholarships that Sacher gives are really intended to add to the existing salaries of foreign music professors, so that they can afford to travel to Basel and perhaps rent a room or two for their period of study. But I had no basic salary, so my scholarship had to pay everything, and I ended up living in my trailer tent on a campsite in Reinach, about five or six miles outside the centre.

During the day, we researchers were on our very best behaviour, taking our coffee break together, and drinking from the finest cups and saucers, with marble floors and super-attentive staff. It was the Switzerland I thought I knew. But then, in the evening, I made friends with a very different type of Swiss on the campsite. Many people in Basel live in apartments, and so have no gardens, and some of them move to caravans in Reinach for the summer. There we drank ourselves into oblivion every night, counted the satellites that passed overhead, sang the very bawdiest of songs, and generally behaved as human beings should. I came away with an impression of two Switzerlands, one for the bosses, and one for the workers.

One amusing relic of my trip is that while there, I sent Conlon Nancarrow a letter, telling him how I was getting on, and giving him all the gory details of Paul Sacher and all his mistresses. I wasn't particularly discreet about it. When Conlon died, the Sacher Stiftung acquired all his correspondence, including my letter, which is now apparently preserved for all eternity in their nuclear-proof cellars!

[pianowolfi]

That's hilarious. I'll go to the Sacher Foundation and read that letter lol

[pianowolfi]

And then I'll pass over all the information about Sachers ladies to the Basel press. Basel will have it's lokal scandal for sure lol

[pianolist]

Well, unfortunately I didn't have any inside knowledge, so the Basel press will only find out what it already knows! But it is a real sign of human nature that everyone was so respectful to Sacher, because he was the richest man in Switzerland, and also a musician. If he had been a footballer, or a little bit poorer, with so many mistresses he would have been in the newspapers every day.

I also thought (naughty me), that it you are aged 80-something, and you want to remain fit enough to play with dozens of ladies, then the best position is to be the president of one of the largest drugs companies in the world. Maybe the history of Viagra started in the cellars of Laroche!

I took my pianola to Basel, and kept it in the Sacher-Stiftung library. On Friday afternoons, I used to play a mixture of Stravinsky, ragtime and jazz, and the librarians allowed themselves to loosen up a bit. The Pianola was fitted in front of Stravinsky's own upright piano, and I liked the feeling of anarchic gemütlichkeit. One afternoon someone came running downstairs and told me to stop immediately, because the boss had arrived unannounced. He must have heard a little bit of music, because the atmosphere went to zero degrees.

Ah well, I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to study all Stravinsky's pianola papers, and it has meant being able to spread the word about Igor's activities with a secure background knowledge. And I discovered Basel, Emmenthal, fondue and rösti!

[Pumkinhead]

The Richter International Piano Competition. Almost all the competitors were at least in their thirties and fourties. 

[pianistimo]

really?  how about 45?  wait,  the winners are all from russia and korea.  how biased is that.  i stomp on the piano and walk out.  competitions bring out the worst in people.

[pianistimo]

the jury is also half russian.  and a few other nationalities.  but mostly eastern.  wow.  you'd have to be really good at russian music to fool those people.

is this competition held every year.  i have a russian last name.  who will sponsor me to go to moscow? 

[pianowolfi]

The Richter International Piano Competition. Almost all the competitors were at least in their thirties and fourties. 

Really cool. pumpkin, i didn't know that, thanks!

[pianowolfi]

the jury is also half russian.  and a few other nationalities.  but mostly eastern.  wow.  you'd have to be really good at russian music to fool those people.

yeah, for sure.

[pianistimo]

pianowolfi, you've got to get better!  we need a twin - so on the days we're tired we just send in the twin.  must learn russian again.  i have a book - 'learn russian in 15 minutes a day.'  and, i threw out a book my husband had from college - '150 swear words in russian'  - i don't know who gave it to him.  of course, i wouldn't need those - but someone else might.  (just kidding).  oh. to have the chance just to play on a stage.  with lights.  in front of spectacular jury.  i really think i could have a good time.  but, what with the conductor getting sick last year - i'd be really mad about working with one person and then switching mid-stream.  that would be like having a different obstetrician at the last moment.

here's the plan.  make it to england.  somehow backpack it to moscow.  find a piano.  play for three months in the environment.  learn some russian.  learn about red tape.  bring some red tape.  put red tape on everything to make sure music doesn't get stolen, etc.  wear shoes with red tape.  eat red tape. drink red tape.  play red tape.  hmmm.  maybe you have to be stiff?  do they allow leroy anderson's piano concerto?  that would be a deciding factor for me.

[pianowolfi]

pianowolfi, you've got to get better!  we need a twin - so on the days we're tired we just send in the twin.  must learn russian again.  i have a book - 'learn russian in 15 minutes a day.'  and, i threw out a book my husband had from college - '150 swear words in russian'  - i don't know who gave it to him.  of course, i wouldn't need those - but someone else might.  (just kidding).  oh. to have the chance just to play on a stage.  with lights.  in front of spectacular jury.  i really think i could have a good time.  but, what with the conductor getting sick last year - i'd be really mad about working with one person and then switching mid-stream.  that would be like having a different obstetrician at the last moment.

tsts, you know that cora has forbidden us to swear . Have you seen that jury? Hi quality actually .

[pianistimo]

tell me about cora!  have you met her? 

[pianolist]

OK, Mr Gruyere, maybe you are the right age, but Sviatoslav Richter is now too old, because it was only held for his 90th anniversary in 2005. We have to go back to the drawing board.

[pianowolfi]

tell me about cora!  have you met her? 

Nono , I just replied to one of her posts I didn't agree with.
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,20443.msg225606.html#msg225606

[pianowolfi]

OK, Mr Gruyere, maybe you are the right age, but Sviatoslav Richter is now too old, because it was only held for his 90th anniversary in 2005. We have to go back to the drawing board.

Nono there will be another edition in 2008, Mr. Cheddar

[pianistimo]

wait.  pianolist?  are you now telling my my dreams are dashed yet again.  i shall have drink to you. 

oh. there's hope after all.  (stops mid-drink)

[pianolist]

Count me in, brother.

[pianistimo]

they don't allow pianola players.  sorry.  you'll either have to deny useage or completely change your identity.

[pianowolfi]

Count me in, brother.

pianolist, pianistimo and me, what a competition team lets book our flight to Moskow lol

[pianolist]

We might get sucked up into the clouds by some hairy prophet. 

[pianolist]

I'm so depressed about all this, I'm going to log off. My feet are in fighting condition, and my left hand sustaining pedalling technique is second to none. Ah, the injustice! And I just finished perforating the solo rolls of Rachmaninov 3. Where shall I play it now?

[pianistimo]

was it rach playing rach3?  wow.  i want to hear that!

[pianolist]

Nope, Rach recorded the whole of the 2nd PC solo part for the Ampico reproducing piano system, but they only ever produced the slow movement, which they used in demonstration concerts, with him playing the outer movements by hand. At least, that was the theory, though I don't have chapter and verse of concert dates and so on.

Rach 3 is a current project, but it's a BIG secret. It's not his recording, though.

Now I really am logging off, doll.

[princessdecadence]

Grand Concours des amateurs de piano   in Paris.

I've heard of this one but I am not sure about the age limit. 

Isn't it "“Les Concours des Grands Amateurs de Piano"?

[pianowelsh]

In Uk the pianist magazine runs a competition for those over 30 who are piano amateurs. Quite deccent prizes, yamaha sponsor it. Held in the cadogan Hall London. Can enter jazz or classical. Finalists were playing things like gaspard and Liszt sonata at the first competition.. its still relatively new.. i imagine the standard may even go up.