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My two recitals are rapidly approaching (2 and half weeks) and the works seem to be pretty much up to speed and clarity, ready to perform. My teacher thinks the recitals will be very successful. Some advice, I am thinking of entering the Chicago Amateur Competition the end of June. The guidelines are a bit vague. I have had several emails to the administrators and they are very nice and generous people. If you go to the site http://chicagopianocompetition.org/home/ and look at the guidelines, these are my questions. The preliminary is UP to ten minutes in length, applause to be inclusive. How much does one allow for applause? It gets more serious when the second round is pronounced a recital up to 20 minutes. The third round is a 30 minute recital. I have only hope of getting to the second round and would be very happy. God forbid, I make it to the third round because I will need to play about another 20 minutes not on my "prepared" recital. I am thinking of adding to the recital two works: Aaron Copland "The Four Piano Blues" and the 2nd Scherzo of Chopin. Both which I have worked on extensively, but what order do I choose in the first two rounds? Here is the listing of all the works in the order I am considering.

First round: Clair de Lune (5:00)
Debussy Prelude Suite Bergamasque (4:30)
(since it's really close to 10 minutes, should I do only the Prelude? It a strong piece for me, but that's only half the time.)

Second round: Schubert Adagio from Sonata c minor (10:00)
Impromptu No 2 op 90 (5:00)

And if a miracle occurs in the East:

Mozart Fantasy in d minor (5:30)
Copland Four Blues (9:30)
Chopin Scherzo No 2 (10:30)

Sorry about the long post. Any input welcome. Just applying costs some money and I will loose some if I don't get in. The actual costs in Chicago are low and I can get a low airfare. Should I do it?????????????????? Jim

I would say go for it, but then I am associated with the competition. It seems like you have strong programs for each round, and you are well prepared. The important thing is that you would benefit from the experience of playing publicly, as well as receiving comments from the jury, who are all respected teachers.

Don't forget there is time allotted for all participants to play their second program even if they don't advance to the second round. Not to mention dinners, a master class, hearing the other contestants perform, and having a general good time in Chicago.

I am not involved in admissions so cannot say if you qualify or will get in, but I think competition slots are filling up and there may be something like 8 openings left. You may want to decide soon.

I'm going to guess that applause is usually about fifteen seconds. If you are really good a rapturous ovation may ensure. I cannot possibly speak for the judges on this and say whether they will be lenient on time overages due to applause, but in other competitions the time limits are slightly flexible because of applause.

In the first two rounds the pieces have to be by the same composer for each round?

Definitely do it! I'd do it too, but I'll still be <30 by this summer

The whole concept of "competition slots filling up" suggests that there is not a major cut between the initial applicant pool and the first round of competition, so you're probably more likely actually to get to play in this competition as opposed to others where they take more applications than they have slots.

Glad to hear you're thinking of entering! That might give us a chance to meet, because I'm definitely applying for it.

About the timings:

Don't worry too much about time for "applause" -- nobody really does. (OK, allow a few seconds.)
Most of the competitions say that thing about applause but I think what they really mean is, take the time limit seriously and try to be sure that the estimated timings don't go over.

Which BTW is more important than how close you come to "filling" the time. Since they have to listen to all these dozens of us amateurs (put yourself in their shoes) .....they certainly don't mind if people play a bit shorter. If I were them, I'd prefer and appreciate it." Actually you won't get shot if you go a few seconds over the limit, but you're better off not. For a "10-minute" round, it's best to aim for between 8:00 and 9:45.

I think the program is excellent, although it would be very tough to make the finals with that semi-finals program. If that doesn't faze you, I say go with it. As you probably know from your long experience in the music world, the most important thing about a program (and your best chance for 'success,' on any and every level) is that you're comfortable with the repertoire and that you seem to LOVE it.

Don't worry too much right now about the order of the pieces. You're allowed to change the order up until the last minute, and even (at least in all the other competitions so far) to switch pieces around from one round to another. And in fact (whisper, whisper) most of the amateur competitions have allowed us to change pieces altogether, up to the last minute.

BTW......IMO the most important round by far is the 1st round. It might be hard to imagine this in the abstract, because it might seem like the 1st round is sort of "nothing" and it only gets serious after that. But let me tell you, the 1st round is the most nerve-wracking, and when you're sitting there after the 1st round waiting for the decisions, it feels like a million bucks if you just get advanced to the 2nd round. After that, it's gravy. I think the best advice, especially for your first competition, is to put together whatever you feel is your best 8-10 minutes for the 1st round (which maybe is what you already did). I doubt you'll regret it.

What's taking you so long?


Anyway, I'd say about 25% under the time limit is okay, but not too much shorter.

Neurosis.


Yes, except that for the finals you don't want to be that much under. But I agree basically.

BTW.....in the first amateur Cliburn, a guy did very well playing only 6:30 in the 1st round -- but that's unusual.

Thanx for all the input. It would be great to meet you Mark. I don't quite understand "7-8 slots left". Since the deadline is still almost a month away, have they already selected 41-42 contestants? I though the they would make the cuts after all the submissions would be in. Does that sound right? And I am already thinking of re-arranging the program.............................Jim

No, it doesn't sound right. I hope that's not really exactly how it's working. Hopefully what they mean is just that that's the number of applications they've received so far. If they meant literally what you're saying, they needed to have indicated that they would be working that way -- i.e. "rolling admissions" and that we don't "really" have up until the deadline.

One of the competitions (the "Concours," in Paris) says that it simply accepts the first 75 applicants, period. But with all the others -- i.e. those with some kind of selection process (and except for one or two other with no defined limit on the number of entrants, where basically every reasonably qualified applicant was accepted) -- they wait till they have all the applications, i.e. until after the deadline, before making any formal selections.

P.S. Where did you hear or see the "7-8 slots" thing? In any event, it seems not to be so.

Since I wondered where that came from, I looked on their website and Facebook page, and (fortunately) didn't find anything like that -- but I did find something else that made me give them a call: The FB page makes reference to "the March 1 deadline." (It was suppposed to be 4/1.) So, I called their office, and it was clarified that March 1 only referred to the "earlybird" deadline. And BTW the person I spoke to there didn't know anything about "7-8 slots." I wouldn't worry about it -- but I'd be interested to know where you got it.

(Thanks -- numerian's post on this thread)

I've taken the plunge and entered the paris concours this year. I'm pretty sure they just accept the first 100 applicants that they receive. Judging from the repertoire lists, tho, the standard appears pretty high. This'll be my first comp of this type, and I think the Eastern miracles will have to be working overtime to get me through any rounds. Still, I'm hoping to hear some great playing, and - let's face it - what a great excuse to visit Paris in April!

Cool! You ought to have a great time. I've been to that one a few times.

Is it 100? I thought 75. But anyway it's a lot.

Don't be too intimidated by the repertoire lists. I also was at first -- I mean, all those Hungarian Rhapsodies and Chopin etudes etc. -- till I realized that you can't necessarily tell much of anything from what people think they can play.
BTW......sometimes people just put down stuff that they're sort of working on and that they think they'll be able to play.

You will hear some great playing. And some of it might be from you!

Well, I've just counted 'em in the glossy brochure they sent me last week, and its 100! I've no idea what to expect, so thanks for the guidance. I have been suffering a bit from Liszt-envy looking at the what other people are proposing to play. I'm sure it'll give me some better ideas of what to aspire to, and the people organising it seem very friendly and keen to promote a conducive playing environment (tho i'm already getting nervous thinking about that first round!!).
cheers

Beautiful book, isn't it?
This was the first competition I ever entered, and I remember that when I first sent away for info, they sent me the book from the previous year. I felt that just being in the book would be a thrill, even forget about anything about the event itself -- and it was.

I can see where the 50 euros goes! It's very nicely put together. My kids were impressed -- well...as impressed as you can allow yourself to be with your dad.

I searched around youtube for some of the prevous winners, and they were spectacular! A Canadian guy (thomas yu) did a performance of the rigoletto paraphrase in the final that i'm sure most pros would be glad to produce. Looking forward to it. I've kept the first round to about 8 min 30, btw, based on similar lines of thinking to the above (can you imagine, sitting through 100 in two days?).

Numerian mentioned in his post above. Thank you for calling and the clarification. It didn't sound right. I knew that the fee before March 1st was $100 and after $150. Hope to see you there!!!!!

Something else you ought to know about the Paris competition (and which I didn't know till a half hour before I went on, and it really threw me):

You don't necessarily just play what you think you're going to play.

That's right.

They have this "bell" which they sometimes ring in the middle of your piece, when they feel they've heard enough, and then they usually ask for you to play a specific other piece from your list. (Sometimes they don't ask for anything more.)

This happens especially in the semi-finals, but it also happens a bit in the first round.

Very important to realize: It's not a bad sign if they ask you to play something else -- it's good. It means that for sure they're taking you seriously as a candidate for the next round and they want to see a little of what else you can do. But it also means you have to be ready in each round to play anything from your program. And even if they ring the bell and don't ask for anything else, that's not necessarily bad either. One time that happened to me, and I did make the next round.

The Paris competition is the only one that does this.

I have good news for you: not 150, just 125.