Competitions

[jono]

Could someone please explain the "rules" and the judgeing moving the competitions, for this crazy swede guy?

From jono

[Alde]

Every competition is different.  The best thing to do is just surf the net and read.  Or check out the competition link of the Piano Forum Website.

[ehpianist]

Not sure what you want to know, the rules for a competition or what the jury bases their judgements on.

In my experience, having sat through many competitions, participated in a few and studied with a guy who is requested on international piano competitions all over the world, the main feature they are looking for is impact. Someone who stands out from the bunch not only in the honesty of interpretation but also in the repertoire chosen.

Then again, there are many competitions where the results are rigged from the begining.  It may not be obvious, for example in most competitions if a student of a jury member is participating, that jury member cannot vote during his round but more than once there have been exchanges among juries of "if you vote for my student now I'll vote for your student in such and such competition"...  not pleasant but it happens.

Essentially, there are two reasons to enter competitions:

1) to win
2) to increase repertoire and have more performance experience.

Both reasons are equally valid.  Don't try to second guess a jury.  Just show up with what you play best, so well that you can almost call the piece your own.  The rest is left to chance and luck.

Elena
https://www.pianofourhands.com

[chopinguy]

Question: is there anything very specific to be gained from competitions alone?  I myself haven't been in a single competition my whole life while all my friends who seriously play piano have.

[lostinidlewonder]

Competitions are a stupid! They do not make a good peformer, just one who satisfies judges which is all bs. They are good to get your peformance skills up, but the way competitions are marked is ridiculous in itself. A lot of jury members will deduct marks against any playing that go against the text, since you need to have some sort of standard to mark against for all competitors. This is ridiculous because ones unique sense of tempo or volume control can get you no where in competition but get you very very far in entertaining peformances.

Competition is good to get an opinion of other teachers rather than just urself and your own group of musical aquaintances. It is good to also listen to how other people play things and to share musical ideas. However i have found most competitions are not like this at all, most of the times people keep to themselves and hope that their competitions stuffs up. This is the scene for competitions all over the world the majority of the time. Utterly uselss i think.

i did a great deal of competitions when i was a younger kid and won a great deal of them. I got a national musical award for the best musician of the year when i was a youngester but does that mean anything? Not really. You do not base your career on awards, you base it on what you can actually give to people. I have fought with heaps of adjudicators and complained at competitions that have only one judge. There should always be multiple judges and also the audience should have a say!

The Sydney International Piano competition is moving towards this. They have a big jury of judges listening to the peformances and the audience can also vote which is good. But in the end it is all a conspiracy, since whoever the judges think is best will go through.

[ehpianist]

Like I said, competitions are good a performance experience.  They are good to learn and maintain repertoire, they are good for learning your stamina under stressful situations. They are good for networking as well.

And of course, they are good if you win...

They are not good if you are insecure about your playing.  They cannot be taken too seriously.

They have little to do with art, everything to do with business.

Elena
https://www.pianofourhands.com

[chopinguy]

So, are they useful at all in determining where you stand as a pianist compared to others?

[ehpianist]

So, are they useful at all in determining where you stand as a pianist compared to others?

Not really, because this woud have to mean that you take the judges' decision seriously and this is something you can't do in competitions.  I have seen the best lose and the obviously not-so best win so it is not about what they say.  It does give you a good perspective as to what other people like you are playing and where they are.

Elena
https://www.pianofourhands.com