<p>My son just submitted his applications to several conservatories for classical piano performance. He has won only a few competitions (only one national and not very well known). He attended Interlochen for six years and Tanglewood last summer. He studies at San Francisco Conservatory, with a wonderful (though not famous) teacher. Will they decide whether he gets a live audition based primarily on his pre-screening or will they also consider his music resume? He has only been playing for around 9 years (actually 8 1/2 years), but he is extremely devoted and practices several hours per day.</p>
<p>I would say it is all up to the prescreen. You will find many students on CC who got into great programs who participated in few or no competitions. Yes, even for piano!<br>
(Is your son’s teacher in the pre-college program? My daughter also studied with a wonderful teacher based in SF.)</p>
<p>I found competitions helpful getting used to playing under pressure. My son never did competitions until this year and he’s discovered he doesn’t play as well while nervous so he’s preparing for that now instead of being surprised later during auditions. But Im under the mindset of being prepared and I generally don’t like surprises so I personally think it helped my son in that regard.</p>
<p>This has been discussed many times on here…competitions can serve as ways to get used to the pressure of auditioning, getting repertoire together and performing under pressure, there is no doubt…as far as getting a pre screen, I don’t think having competitions on your resume will do anything towards getting an audition, the pre screen recording is what is going to do it. I have heard some people over the years, the proponents of competitions who for whatever reason have this invested themselves in the notion they mean something, arguing that if you win a big competition like the Queen Elizabeth or whatever it will help you…which if you think of that, is kind of putting the cart before the horse, because if you are good enough to win one of those competitions, or even get in them, you likely are playing well enough to ace a pre screen…I could also say that competitions gives you an idea of how you are playing, but given that there are so many competitions out there, which range from local “isn’t that nice” kind of things to serious ones, it may not measure much how you do in them…so I would say take it as a performance opportunity and a chance to prepare and work under pressure, and leave it at that, and worry about the pre screen recording:)</p>
<p>My daughter consistently placed high in competitions and got into a great conservatory with students who did equally as well in the same or similar competitions. The competitions let her get a sense of her level of talent. Although I don’t think it mattered on her resume much, the competitions and the whole act of competing gave lessons in professionalism. The critiques gave her a thicker skin. She also found out how small the music community can be. lol</p>
<p>It also helps you realise that judging is subjective. In one competition, one judge said his playing was over the top while the other two judges loved his interpretation. </p>
<p>I don’t think the competitions weigh very much in the application. It is the pre-screen and the audition you have to worry about. We saw the competitions as a way to practice performing in an “audition like” setting. The feedback was always good to read. Some things were consistent and showed where work was needed. Also a way to judge where you fall among your peers. And to make connections. You start to see the same people over and over and just like this message board, you can get a lot of good information. Just beware of the “My child has won every competition and is being highly recruited by XYZ school” Just smile and nod and walk away.
Funny story- One time my D said “oops” right in the middle of a competition. Afterwards, the judge said “never say oops, act like you meant it as artistic expression” 
</p>
<p>I, too, am skeptical about ‘my kid won every competition they entered’ , if every kid whose parent said that, or the famous “my kid was auditioning, and the members of the audition panel said he played like Heifetz” really was like that, all the top soloists would be out of a job <em>lol</em>. Seriously, I would be careful about using competitions to measure how good you are, there are a lot of competitions out there, and quite frankly many of them are local little events, often with local teachers judging it and such and draw ‘local talent’, so those can be hard to tell how good you are from them. Judges in competitions can be parochial, there are a ton of things that can happen. My son had a judge in a competition rip his solo bach, yet that same piece helped get him admitted to some of the top conservatories, the teacher he now studies with said that the panels on two of the schools he was on said it really impressed them, so who do you believe, teachers at two of the top conservatories out there, or some member of ASTA or whatever <em>shrug</em>. </p>
<p>And on the obverse, someone my son know won one of the most prestigious string competitions in the world, and yet a month before winning that competition didn’t get into Curtis, go figure. </p>
<p>Yes, he’s in the pre-college program at SF Conservatory and totally loves it. But his teacher is anti-competition for some reason. I agree that it strengthens the ability to perform under pressure, but most competitions require travel, and he is so incredibly busy that it’s hard to squeeze them in these days.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your comments. I also think the competitions are quite political. I heard all of the performers play in the last competition in which he participated, and 4 out of the 5 winners studied with the same music teacher who sat on the board of the institution running the competition. My son made one noticeable mistake, but the rest was quite strong. And we never received comments, so it felt like a slap in the face. You are all correct – this is the world he is choosing to enter, and it is quite competitive and sometimes unfair. That’s why I chose not to pursue music when I was his age and went to college instead of conservatory. Nonetheless, I want him to pursue his passion. Thank you all so much.</p>
<p>@ bluemeringue-
That happened with the recent Indianapolis violin competition, which is one of the biggiest…in the final round, a large percentage of those who made it were students of Miriam Fried of NEC, who was on the panel…and Aaron Rosand of the Curtis Institute wrote a scathing post about that (he had students who were eliminated from the competition, not surprisingly)…There are also arguments that teachers should not sit on juries of these things, that it should be performers, Manahem Pressler wrote an article about that and what he said was what teachers often look for has little relationship to being a performer and musician and this active performers were better suited for judging how well someone performs (and having seen the winners of some of the big competitions, who had the technical chops but were as boring and unimaginative as a CPA, I kind of agree with the idea)…a lot of teachers are anti competition because they feel the nature of them does little to drive forward musicality and musicianship, that it turns it into a game or something to be gamed (ie instead of kids learning to express the music, feel it and understand it, you have teachers who teach the kid how to play the music to win a competition). </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that competitions are bad, I don’t believe that, it means that they are valuable as performing opportunities and to perform under pressure and to be judged, as you will be on an audition, but to use the results of a competition, whether good or bad, as a measure of how good you are is quite frankly of minimal value.To be honest, the real value is in listening to the other kids play and seeing where their strong and weak points are as a listener, rather than how the judges end up ranking them, unless a kid is completely dismal, music students are both self critical and tend to see how other kids are playing because they are so good at self analyzing. I will add that many winners of the most pretigious competitions end up disappearing (to become teachers, often, promoting how they won x, y and z), and that a lot of the musicians who end up making it as soloists or solid working musicians have done little with them… in the violin world, it is kind of sad, when we watch the various top level competitions, you see pretty much a core group of what I call professional competitors, who to me seem to keep trying the competitions, hoping to win and to catch lightening in a bottle and become a soloist, when maybe they might be able to spend their time better honing their skills, networking, and finding the path to a solid career. </p>
<p>I totally agree. My son happens to like the process, since it inspires him to practice more and gives him the opportunity to perform under pressure. Not sure where he gets that from – certainly not me. I will say that my piano teacher growing up was very competitive. As a result, I won a lot of competitions and performed in a recital (with other young pianists) at Carnegie Hall, etc. Honestly, it meant nothing. I was perfectly fine and did well, but it reflected more on how politically savvy my teacher was. </p>
<p>I also think there are a lot of competitions that require extensive travel, which are simply not feasible for us, since my son does not want to miss that much school. All fine, I suppose.</p>
<p>I am hoping he will continue to feel passionate about piano long after the professional competitors burn out. Many of the top musicians at his pre-college conservatory and at BUTI were planning to drop music just as soon as they got accepted into Harvard, Yale, etc. I think it’s sort of sad.</p>
<p>@ bluemeringue-
“Many of the top musicians at his pre-college conservatory and at BUTI were planning to drop music just as soon as they got accepted into Harvard, Yale, etc. I think it’s sort of sad.”</p>
<p>It was sad to see in the program my son was in. There are generally 3 distinct groups in programs like that, and it goes something like this 1)The kids who are musical, who intend in some way to do music through their lives, either going to music school in college UG, or planning to do it post UG 2)The kids who are musical, who want to do music, but who are only allowed to do music because their parents see it as a great influence on getting into an EC. These kids when they get to college will probably continue playing (if their parents decide it isn’t too much time wasted from studies), and are sad because some of them would really love to do music but won’t because their parents would never allow it 3)the kids who don’t really want to do music, don’t really care about it, but were pressured by their parents into doing it, and as soon as they get into college, they drop it gladly, and watching them play was so painful, it was quite obvious they hated it. I also felt for the kids in group 2, because it was apparent they loved music but never had a chance. Fortunately or unfortunately, music does offer benefits on admission, so a lot of parents glom onto it as as ‘magic’ ec…</p>
<p>My son goes to magnet school for the arts, where he studies piano. He also is in a pre-college prep program at a conservatory (though not Juilliard) and has attended music summer programs for 7 years. Out of all the many pianists he knows (literally dozens upon dozens), he is one of a half-dozen who intend to continue pursuing music. Sadly, the vast majority are still auditioning for Juilliard and other top conservatories just to see if they can get in and indicating to top universities/music programs that they plan to continue to play throughout college/conservatory and beyond. I think many had some genuine passion for music, but it was hammered out of them. I hope they return to it once it’s no longer an obligation, but a joyous choice.</p>