Klarinet Archive - Posting 000325.txt from 2004/04

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: Competitions & Juries
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:52:26 -0400

In message <BAY13-F97pGKy3hrbn10006dc8f@-----.com>
"Bryan Crumpler" <crumpletox@-----.com> wrote:

> I don't know how much the "too European" business factored into his
> decision. I placed 3rd and won the Stage Deportment Award for most
> effective performance and stage presence when it came down to the nitty
> gritty. But it was just a comment that I heard from him at the reception...
> His words were that my playing was "too European for the conservative world
> of American classical music, and that I should probably move to Europe if I
> wanted to continue pursuing a career as a soloist because they love that
> stuff" -- "stuff", I presume, refers to whatever qualities about my
> playing or performance translates to "European". And I thought that comment
> was rather thick to be made following an "international" competition. For
> all he knew, I could have been living & performing in Europe already. And I
> was performing a Spohr Concerto... not the Copland. The "too European" just
> didn't seem relevant at that point.

Well, things are a bit plainer after that. But I thought you said in your
first post:

> ...I was kinda disturbed that in two of my most recent challenges, there was
> only, like, 1 or 2 judges; and in reviewing my comments, it became apparent
> that those judges voted against me for concerns that my playing style was
> "too European" (whatever that meant).

...which seems to imply that the 'European' quality, or whatever, had counted
against you in the competition. From what you write in this, later post, the
context in which at least one of the judges was making his remark seems to be
that of US musical expectations, which he further characterised as
'conservative'. That might not be a negative assessment of you personally:
Reginald Kell, I believe, counted himself a victim of The Establishment in
his US career.

> Anyway, I only brought up the topic because one of the judges in another
> competition I just did also mentioned that style was too European, which
> was like deja-vu almost. Rep for that was Tomasi & Weber Concerti, and
> Messager's Solo de Concours... As for the "too European" aspect, I still
> don't see the relevance, which is why I'm disturbed myself that I would
> hear such comments at an "international" competition.

Thing is, you're always going to get the judges you get, and they're always
going to have opinions about you. The artificial nature of having a few
rather arbitrarily chosen people decide, on the basis of a limited exposure,
who is better than whom is one of the reasons why I myself find judging
competitions something of a pain, and why I most often turn down invitations
to do it.

I think you'd be best off either not worrying about any of this, or -- since
it's happened twice -- you could try to find out exactly what these two
people meant.

Something I like about Simon Rattle is that he's always willing to listen to
anything a musician finds it important enough to want to say to him; and he
makes the effort to get really clear what they're talking about. The
infuriating bit is that if he finds out he doesn't agree, he just ignores the
advice.

But that has its upside, because you never feel he thinks you're going to
worry him, or knock him off track. If he decides to take your idea
seriously, you see, then by the time he implements it, it belongs to him too.

You could take a similar stance.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

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