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

American Music Teacher, April-May, 2003 by Jane Magrath

JM: Many teachers regularly attend competitions and enjoy hearing the many fine performances. I hear them say that the official results sometimes closely match those that they would have selected, while other times they are quite different from their own choices. Is there an agreed upon standard in judging music competitions?

DH: I too have had the same experiences. To the best of my knowledge, there are no accepted judging guidelines for musical competitions. Both judges and competitors wrestle with this. I recently had the pleasure of judging a performance competition where, in one division, I had a very difficult decision to make. I still wonder about that judging decision. One of the competitors was extremely expressive and very entertaining. He had great performance communication; in a word he had "pizzazz." He was also not technically polished. Most of the virtuosic passages in his performance were glossed over with many small inaccuracies. The other competitor presented a thoroughly polished and prepared performance. There was very little room to criticize his technical presentation; however, his artistic communication still had a good deal of room for improvement. He did not possess the dynamic communication of the other performer. I considered both performances outstanding in certain ways; however, it was very difficult for me to select which was first and which was second. Which would you choose?

GA: I find an interesting parallel between ice-skating and piano competitions. In ice-skating there are certain things you cannot do or there is an automatic deduction made to your score. I think there are certain items in a piano competition that are not matters of musical opinion or taste. Many wrong notes or a big memory lapse can be compared to a fall on the ice for the skater. When I see judges ignore or perhaps not hear such lapses, it makes me wish there were some agreed upon standards in piano competitions, like playing mostly the right notes or at least having your piece memorized all the way through.

JM: Since you have had national winners in every division of the MTNA competitions, and have students involved in MTNA competitions every year, what are your thoughts on these competitions?

GA: Some of the most dedicated, hardworking people I know run the MTNA national competitions, and I have a great admiration for what they are doing. Each year at the national conference someone will say how wonderfully all of the students in the competitions play. I am reminded of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. Does anyone have the courage to say that not all the performances are good? Some of the top performances each year are truly at a very high level, but all too often many of them are not.

JM: Why do you think this happens?

GA: In some respects MTNA'S competition is the most difficult and most unpredictable of all competitions my students enter. One must pass three levels of competition spaced out over half a year's time. This means playing three times for three different panels of judges. Sometimes the very best performances are not those of the students that ultimately get first place at the national level, for whatever reason. The same could be true about any competition, including the Van Cliburn Competition. I am sure that traveling to three different locations further and further away and at greater and greater expense for student, parents, teacher and accompanist keeps many talented students from even entering.