 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2008-02-03 14:51
Yesterday I went with my wife and daughter to listen to our daughter play in Solo & Ensemble;le competition.
I was amazed at the number of high school kids who actually wanted to perform (many of them doing solo work). There wee a few ensembles, from duets to quartets to full-blown choirs, but most of what I heard in the warmup rooms was soloists. Maybe it was just that the areas we were in were reserved for performance areas which had judges doing strictly solo work... I don't know.
One of th things I like about these competitions in Michigan, as compared to my youth in Ohio, is that the judges actually take a few moments after the student is finished, and go over the performance and make helpful suggestions and positive critiques. In my day, we left as soon as the music stopped, and waited on pins and needles until the ratings got posted.
So, a couple of questions:
Forst off, in your venues, which style do the judges use, and do you feel it is a good way to do it?
Second, if you do comment directly to the student, what do you say to someone who obviously is not prepared and hasn't put a great deal into working out the piece? I would have thought that the kids would want to put up as flawless a performance as possible, but I head some real mangling of Mozart, Weber, Tartini and others yesterday. How do you address things like that in your comments. I ask this because my daughter suffered through a really bad session with a hostile judge a few years back. He had never seen or heard the Vanhall Sonata before my daughter performed it, and yet he went on the warpath to criticize her. My daughter's teacher, a member of the Detroit Symphony, was the person who knew the piece and coached her on how it should be performed. My daughter was respectful to the judge (whom I wanted to throttle, btw) and stood her ground. She still ended up with a Superior rating that day, but I felt that the judge went beyond the pale. A number of other kids left the judging room in tears that day, and I haven't seen that guy listed as a judge in our area since that day.
Oh yeah... she got a Superior on her solo and on her duet with a Tenor Sax player this time.
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
Post Edited (2008-02-05 14:23)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lisa
Date: 2008-02-03 18:31
I'm not a judge, nor do I play one on TV. I just wanted to comment that there are good and bad professionals in every category, including "The physician who finished last in his/her class is still given the title "Doctor."
In PA they take 4 Bb clarinet players from each region to qualify for all-state. They include the first chairs from 1st, 2nd and 3rd part. Then at some point during a rehearsal the next day they would pull out the SECOND chairs from each part and have them audition against each other for the remaining all-state qualifier. I always thought that was pretty stupid since I'm sure the student on first part would score the highest most often, but since each part had their own audition room and judges, you couldn't just compare their scores altogether to get the 4 highest. Oh well.
Sorry for the background info digression. It was my junior year and I sat second chair, second clarinet and I was having reed difficulty before being unexpectedly called into a re-audition. Long story short, I just picked any old reed (bad move) and was escorted into the audition area, where we were not allowed to play a note until called. The first re-audition piece that was chosen had a lot of high notes, and mine just wouldn't come out well at all with the reed I'd blindly chosen. I was rather traumatized when I know I heard one of the judges laugh at my misfortune from behind their screen. I wasn't laughing -- it was bad enough I played as badly as I did with the bum reed and didn't have a prayer at making states after the re-audition -- heck, I didn't even know why we were pulled out of rehearsal, since that was my first year at regionals. I'm sure it was hard for the judges to believe that I sat second chair, second part, but I found it highly unprofessional for one of them to laugh at my bad performance.
Post Edited (2008-02-05 21:32)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jhall
Date: 2008-02-05 12:57
In Wisconsin we try to think of Solo and Ensemble as a festival, not a competition. We're not always successful.
Judges are like any other group of people and I hope a lot better than a box of Vandorens! There are times when a judge may be having a really bad day. Sometimes lunch disagrees with us. Perhaps a tooth aches. The school personnel managing the festival have the option to not hire that judge again. Some school conferences have a list of such judges.
We are encouraged to give constructive verbal comments to each event or group of performers, but not at the expense of written comments. This is part of our training at workshops.
Yes, it can be difficult to find something positive to say about a poor performance. If it is obvious the music hasn't been prepared, then that has to be addressed.
I would rather listen to live music all day than to hear recorded music. The students provide a level of energy that doesn't come across with a CD. Many times students are surprised by the amount of adrenaline and it results in tears at the end of the performance. Those students aren't crying from any criticism; it's an emotional release from something they have invested a lot of time preparing for.
Sorry for the rambling - it's early!
Congratulations to your daughter. May she continue making good clarinet music.
Congratulations to you for supporting her! Too often we see a student perform to an empty room. Students need parents to be there.
John
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2008-02-05 14:19
Sorry not to get back to this sooner.
My wife and I would never think of missing one of our daughter's performances.
They call it a Festival here, too, but I don't know if that's just semantics. After all, you are competing, even if only against the ideal of a flawless performance. In Ohio, they called them "contests," back in the stone ages when I was playing in them.
BTW, John, my daughter and I still play together in an adult concert band. She is one of a few HS students in the band, mostly kids of adult members. Last year, she was the featured soloist for our February Cabaret Concert, playing Reid's Serenade for Solo Clarinet and Band.
Thanks for the feedback, folks.
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
Post Edited (2008-02-05 14:24)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
