"DIANE M. CLARK (MUSIC DEPARTMENT)" wrote:
>
>
> 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.
Diane's comments reflect very accurately my experience as a Met judge.
(If I can crow a little and say that one of our 3 local finalists -
Lindsay Killian - was one of the five national winners this year!) I
would also add that with so many of the singers being similar in skill,
it often will come down to a 'gut' instinct about who has "the right
stuff" for a career. Very suprisingly, on that point (as subjective as
one can get) the three of us were unanimous in our 'feeling'.
--
Dr. Barry Bounous
Brigham Young University
School of Music
bounousb@i...
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