Competition
Well, I had my flute competition yesterday - I came second but it could have been better.
I’ll start from when I got adjudicated, after everyone had played. She literally spent 5 minutes praising my piece and how I played, which was really nice, but I was expecting a grilling. Earlier on in the day she’d reduced a girl to tears, and she was to in my class too, as she simply listed all that was wrong with their playing. Sometimes she’d go “Now, do you know what my problem is with you?”, and other times it would just all come out. She also particularly liked the last player, the clarinettist, although he got a few minor criticisms in his tone.
So, I was quietly confident that I’d be in the top 3. Before she announced the results, she said she would have loved to give a tied first between myself and the clarinettist, she put him first and me second, purely on the basis of the pianist and the interaction with the pianist!!
This was a bit off as:
a) It’s a solo - your music should be judged not your pianist
b) It’s harder to interact when your music isn’t imitative, his was, mine wasn’t
c) I’d met my pianist for 10 minutes the previous day, his was his Dad.
I am happy with second, but it is just a bit annoying, as if I had come first, I would have won a cup for the highest mark (I was only 1 mark behind this boy) and gone through into the our area’s “Young Musician of the Year” qualifiers. Her marking was just inconsistent…why spend ages talking about all my positives, then mention weaknesses in the clarinettist if she was going to put him first?