<p>I’ve always thought that judges should recuse themselves in competitions when their own students audition, but apparently not many in the classical music world thinks so. This sort of scenario is common.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t sweat it-- as Binx illustrates, the seating in this concert isn’t going to make a difference in your son’s career. It’s better to learn how to deal with these bumps graciously. Kids (and parents) are sometimes obsessed with seating order in auditioned ensembles. It’s a honor and privilege to be principal, of course, but in the end it doesn’t really matter much where you sit as long as you can see the conductor over the tall person in front of you.</p>
<p>No, actually, I don’t think that’s it. I think that we parents who support our kids’ musical endeavors do so with a great deal of trepidation. So much is out of our control, and often even beyond our areas of expertise. Is our kid good enough? Does he have what it takes to make it in this extremely competitive field? Are we throwing money and time down the drain? Should we be encouraging them or guiding them elsewhere? It is emotionally exhausting. We are continually looking for validation and reassurance.</p>
<p>So yeah, we gobble up every compliment, and sweat every critique. It’s not you, it’s just the way it is. Glassharmonica is right - learn to be gracious. Compliment or congratulate the other kid. If your kid usually comes out on top, you know what it feels like to win. Treat the other kid well; chances are good the scenario will turn around next time… or the time after.</p>
<p>(For the record, I think the whole audition process, especially at the professional level, is ridiculous. I wish it were done more like sports - with scouts, etc. If only someone would put me in charge!)</p>
<p>Last year D sang in the Classical Singer competition at a college in NY. The day before the competition, she had a sample lesson with a teacher from the college who happened to be a judge. Although she did not sing any of her competition pieces during her lesson, the teacher recused herself from judging my daughter.</p>
<p>Hello everyone. Thankyou very much for all of your responses.
We did congratulate the boy that finished above. He is a very nice boy and a good friend of my sons actually. Its not his fault.
My beef as I said is with the teacher. Imagine that she teaches the boy for three years now and he doesnt even make all county last year or the year before. Isnt it very handy for her that the family see some sort of success for all the money they have paid her during this time?</p>
<p>Nevermind though. We will take the high road as many of you suggest.</p>
<p>I guess I will be posting here more from now on as I am very interested on where my son could possibly go forward with this talent that he has. Not being a musician myself I have no clue.</p>
<p>Here’s another example of the judging system at work in such a band competition. In our area, there is an enormous amount of depth at the district level, with dozens of excellent players particularly in flutes, clarinets and saxophones. My daughter auditioned on both her main instruments for a district competition, oboe and sax. The oboe seemed to be a fair audition, she said, but on sax she was downgraded far too much on scales compared with her high etude score, considering that she didn’t miss any notes on scales. We later learned that she was marked down on scales for playing too fast, even though there was no stated tempo! Of course the students at the host school all knew the unwritten rules, and they made up 80% of the instrumentalists selected. Pretty obvious problem there! That’s the way these school-run competitions go. My daughter is fine, made it to All-State on oboe, and she’ll play her scales on sax next year very SLOWLY.</p>
<p>I am the proud mother of two woodwind players - thus the name. </p>
<p>My D is a senior in HS and plays the oboe. She will be going to college for music ed. I will post the acceptance info as soon as we have heard from all schools. She also sings and plays the flute/piccolo and piano.</p>
<p>My S is a Junior in HS and plays the clarinet, sax and piano. He also sings. He wants to study composition in college. I started another thread and asked a couple questions for him.</p>
<p>My H plays the sax and clarinet (and has a nice tenor voice). Me? Not musical - I’m the band manager…I do schedules, equipment, finances, transportation, etc…</p>
<p>Mom2winds … welcome … sounds like your role is similar to a lot of us parents, musical or not … manager, scheduler, equipment person, finances, transportation … those skills will continue to come in handy until your two musician students get a lot further along. Good luck on hearing from all your D’s schools!</p>
<p>Hi, I am a freshman in high school and have played the piano for almost ten years now. I am currently studying music with a Suzuki school, but I enjoy playing all kinds of styles, not just classical. I have a lot of fun performing, and have entered a good number of competitions and have done well in several. I am also seriously thinking about starting to play accordion.</p>
<p>Am new to this site Have D who is a senior in HS. Plans a BM in Vocal Performance ( Soprano). Has already been accepted at 2 regional universities out here in the west with excellent music programs that require auditions. Still waiting to hear from Rice. Am amazed anyone makes it as a soprano - most of these programs take only 4-5 a year at most out of hundreds of auditions- and we aren’t even talking about the big famous conservatories. My daughter didn’t want to go the conservatory route- she was pretty insistent that she wanted to go to college and have the college experience. Besides, singers at 17 are just babies- most won’t mature until age 30, whereas most instumentalists are proficient in their teens.</p>
<p>Welcome, Hopedoc! Congrats on your D’s acceptances. It sounds like you both have done your homework so far, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Rice for her.</p>
<p>Hi , I’m a soprano and also play the piano ,guitar and flute. I came from a musical family my parent sing and my dad took many years of piano lessons but they both were against my idea of majoring in music. I studied Business in college and after finishing and getting married I decided to pursuit my dreams on the music field.
I was accepted at Belmont University Church music (Voice), Rice and SUNY purchase so far still waiting to hear from the other schools</p>
<p>Rice and SUNY Purchase have no degree concentrations in church or sacred music (that I’m aware of) and I’ve listed those two as BM’s in vocal performance. Given the limited background info you’ve provided, I’ve assumed these are for bachelors, not masters level acceptances.</p>
<p>If any of my assumptions are incorrect, just post corrections on the Master I’ve linked, and either I or BassDad will amend them.</p>