The Ethics of Judging

[lorditachijr]

Well, after working on Mendelssohn's 1st Piano Concerto for about 4 months, I finally had my first (of probably 4 total) auditions with it. I came in 2nd, so I'll get to perform with the orchestra on a concert in March. I was shooting for 1st, but hey, I have three more tries.

I normally don't gripe over these things, but this competition brought up the issue of being fair while judging for me. One of the judges was the primary teacher of the 1st place winner. This just doesn't seem very ethical. I think you are naturally more biased towards your own students because you have spent years giving them your musical values. But even this could really be put aside if the judge/teacher agrees to listen completely objectively to the audition. However, how can you listen objectively if you're accompanying the student at the same time as when you're supposed to be judging them? I honestly don't think it's possible.

We knew about this situation prior to the competition (my teacher had two other students competing, one of whom placed 3rd), and we thought this may be the case. I almost feel most sorry for that student who won. He may have given the best performance, but there will always be a question of whether or not the win was legitimate. My teacher requested that she be allowed sit in on the auditions (one of her other students accompanied us; therefore she wouldn't hear her own students either). I thought that this was an amicable request under the circumstances, but it was denied.

It's also to note that while the 3rd place winner and I have consistently received honors in state competitions, this was the very first competition the 1st place winner had ever played in. You would think that the other two judges would have no reason to be partial, but one of them had given this student composition lessons but hadn't even met the rest of us. The student was also given the opportunity to rehearse for months on the piano that was used in the competition.

Now you know my thoughts on the matter. I just think it's wrong to judge in a competition in which your student is competing. What would you do if you were in either the judge's position, the winner's position or my position?

[cjp_piano]

What country do you live in? I've NEVER heard of that happening before. Most teachers agree that none of the judges should be the teachers of any of the students in the competition. When I've helped to run a competition or festival, we make sure the judges don't have any students in the competitions. That's just common sense. We even try to get judges from outside the area.

What competition were you in? That should have been totally against the rules.

[starstruck5]

Yeah that is like allowing the referee of a Premier League football match to be the manger of one of the teams -lol  I wouldn't worry about your placing in this one - put it down to experience and enter FAIR competitions from now on!

[m1469]

Well, of course I'm not super experienced with competitions.  I've recently just had my first adult one ever.  I had thought I at least had a fighting chance and that perhaps if I sung my best, I could win (but I certainly wasn't counting that I would as fact).  In fact, I did sing the best I have ever sung and I believe that although I will continue to grow, develop and improve, and there are things I can adjust in order to better refine what I did, I gave a professional and inspired performance at a time that it really mattered.  

I've had mixed feelings about all of it.  Yes, I would like to have won for various reasons and not doing so has given rise to some deep questions (which, is not what you might think!), but at the same time there are numbers of things that I can grasp about the position the judges were in, too.  Even if I did happen to give the best performance, which I'm not saying I did because I don't know but, let's just say that was possible.  Even if I did, the judges were local and I was up against people who would have (and probably very much did) given very solid, professional, beautiful performances, as well, but who also have outstanding singing/operatic resumes and who, on paper, would win in that way over me in a heartbeat.  So, even aside from other matters (which I won't mention), how would that look if I won?  Some local chick (a pianist ... whaaa??) who they can hardly advertise, having beat out 50-something other, experienced, professional contestants from around the Country?  That's tricky.  

I kind of think though that they didn't expect for me to sing like I did and were like "oh poopy, let's just pretend that didn't happen!" (yet, it did  :-) and promptly swept it under the rug  .  I'm just not sure if I completely don't stand a chance anywhere, when the people who know me and (supposedly) believe in me *could* give me something to put on my resume that would speak to others but don't, and if the people who don't know me won't give me a chance because I never get a second glance past my resume!

Anyhoo, I guess it's tricky business!    Maybe I'm just going to end up a shaggy bag lady  .

[lorditachijr]

I live in the United States. It's pretty much unheard of here. In one of my state competitions (where my teacher is the chairman), they go to such incredible lengths to make sure the judging is fair that my teacher found this situation appalling.

I understand the point that m1469 brings up, but in this case, we had heard the 1st place winner play before. Not 8 months ago, his main repertoire consisted of Chopin Waltzes and Beethoven Sonatinas. I'm not saying that those pieces are easy, but considering the fact that the 3rd place winner and I have both played and competed with upwards of four Beethoven Sonatas each over the years(among other repertoire), it's hard to believe that there was no bias in the judging.

I think the best thing for me to do now is just move on from this and focus on my two state competitions this year. I feel like if I can win (or just place in) those and perform my best at the winner's concert, it won't really matter that I got 2nd place in a local competition (where the competition in all honesty wasn't that substantial).

I'm sorry that I sort of ranted in my original post. This was just something that really bothered me. It also bothers me that most of the people who will hear about this won't understand that there's a problem with judging your own student, but there's nothing I can really do about that. People will think what they'll think, and I shouldn't be worried about it.

[m1469]

Yes, time to focus.

*puts pencil in hair*

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I've never Competed in, or even watched a competition before, but lol that's crazy.