Vocalist.org archive


From:  RRicciardi@S...
Date:  Thu May 4, 2000  6:32 pm
Subject:  RE: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Met Auditions


This certainly does shed some light on the stresses of auditioning.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: DIANE M. CLARK (MUSIC DEPARTMENT) [SMTP:DCLARK@r...]
> Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 2:22 PM
> To: vocalist-temporary@egroups.com
> Subject: Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Met Auditions
>
> Naomi wrote:
>
> >The thing the judges can never tell you is why
> you sang well but didn't win.
>
> As one who has judged Met Auditions, NATS Auditions, and many other vocal
> com-
> petitions, I will have to pick a little at this statement. If I am
> judging
> a competition with 10 singers, it is possible that they may all sing well.
> This is especially true if they have won a district level and are not at a
> regional level competition. They ARE all winners! Yet my job as a judge
> is
> to pick the winners at this level. Let's say I have to choose 3 winners.
> Now these 10 singers all sing well (or they wouldn't be there), but not
> one
> of them is perfect. I have to look for the differences in their technique
> and in their basic instruments that will allow me to score 3 of them
> higher
> than the others. Maybe one has fabulous breath control. Maybe one has a
> superb trill. Maybe one has a luscious warm timbre. Maybe one is totally
> in
> character. maybe one makes me weep (for the right reasons). Of course,
> all
> of this is tinged with personal preferences on the part of each judge.
> Now if
> one of the singers who did not win asks me why he didn't win, which he
> should-
> n't anyway, the correct answer is, "You didn't win because I liked Mary's
> singing better than yours." But no judge is going to say that, so they
> will
> sidestep the question. As a judge, I would rather tell the singer what he
> did well and encourage him, than to tell him that I liked another singer's
> voice or technique better than his. If I have opportunity to make
> suggestions
> for improvement, I'll happily do that, too, but not all competitions allow
>
> written comments. A singer who enters competitions just has to come to
> terms
> with the fact that not everybody can win, even if they are all excellent
> singers. Sometimes good people do not win. It's the nature of the beast.
> If
> you can't take the heat, sty out of the kitchen.
>
> (The above would make more sense if I had typed it correctly. It should
> read,
> "and are NOW at a regional level competition.")
>
> |\ Dr. Diane M. Clark, Assoc. Prof./Chair of Music Dept., Rhodes
> College
> | 2000 N. Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112, 901-843-3782, dclark@r...
> () http://gray.music.rhodes.edu/musichtmls/faculty/dclark.html
>
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