Polyphony - Professional Resources - Gary Amano and Dennis Hirst interviewed on music competitions - Interview

The Competition Dilemma

This rounded pillar presents a guest interview with Gary Amano and his colleague Dennis Hirst from Utah State University in Logan, Utah. one as well as the other Amano and Hirst have had numerous winners in MTNA national, division and state competitions. We felt readers might be interested in a certain number of of their insights and views about entering scholars in competitions.

Jane Magrath: What is the teacher's character in entering students in competitions?

Dennis Hirst: Teachers have the responsibility of stressing musical exhibition and preparation over winning, and encouraging learners to be respectful of other competitors and of the music. Competition rises can confirm a student's progres and remind of directions for future musical development

JM: Gary, your scholars have been highly successful in competitions. What kinds of learners do you enter in competitions?

Gary Amano: Competitions are not for everyone A fate of people are surprised when I enumerate them that during much of my teaching career I chose not to pierce the majority of my scholars in competitions. We need to be careful that the teacher's self does not get in the way. While an outstanding pupil can benefit a teacher's reputation, if the teacher's attitude is that his scholars exist to make him gaze good, he needs to seriously re-examine his part It is up to the teacher to discern which pupils are up to the task and which are not. The whole experience can be unpleasant and damaging to a pupil especially if a student lacks the ability, vision, discipline or peculiar preparation for a competition, or if the pupil has expectations that are not likely to happen.

DH: Teachers must assess their scholars in terms of musical skills and personality. more [i]or[/i] less students are terrified of performing or just not interested in competitions. single of my students becomes in the way that anxious during piano recitals that she has to leave, flat if she is not performing. I am working with this learner on performance anxiety and controlling fear of playing for friends, and will probably not at any time ask her to enter a competition. It is clearly inappropriate in this instance and foreign to her and my goals. Another of my learners has previously been a prize winner in several competitions. owed to a recent ice-skating injury, she was forced to withdraw from the last competition she pierceed Since that time, her practice hours have dwindled, and she has not been as interested in learning novel repertoire. At her last exercise I challenged her to go into an upcoming competition that required a concerto motion that she had been dragging her feet upon learning. With the goal of a subsequent time competition, she has returned to her former practice habits and is literally devouring novel repertoire.

JM: What do you have feeling are the student's responsibilities in competition preparation?

DH: The teacher has the important responsibility of understanding the couple the competition guidelines and the performance horizontal of the competitors. This is a pace many teachers miss--that of matching the competition to the scholar An obvious example might help here. The performance horizontal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of different from that of the Elementary Division of the Utah State Fair Music Competition. Of course, a teacher would not encourage a scholar toward a competition for which he was publicly not suited. While it is appropriate to dream, a student's feet must be planted upon the ground, and the pupil should be shown how to take single step at a time in boundarys of entering competitions. It is not appropriate to take chances upon whether the student is able to learn a sufficient quantity of literature for a forthcoming competition. He must know that the scholar is able to achieve it.

The teacher also has the responsibility of selecting competition repertoire that highlights the student's forces We all have different abilities, and no single person is the best at each musical and technical skill. I do not cull the same repertoire for competitions as I do for basic skill disclosure I have witnessed many competitions where talented learners have not advanced or won prizes based largely upon repertoire choices. Simply put, if a learner is not ready to play a difficult work similar as Ravel's Scarbo, do not assign it for the competition.

JM: What about pupil expectations with regard to competitions?

DH: The scholar must have reasonable expectations in confines of competition preparation. Recently, a pupil asked if he could go into an upcoming competition. The competition required submission of an audio recording that included performance of a consummate concerto performance. This student had alone learned one movement of his concerto. When I asked the scholar about this, he assured me that he could learn the remaining motions in the time before the recording extremityed to be submitted. Then, I asked him when the recording was owed and he sincerely replied, "In ten days." Clearly, his was not a reasonable expectation. This happens repeatedly with students. I have ofttimes inquired as to a student's progres in competition preparation solitary to be told, "Don't worry. The competition is not for sum of two units more months."