I wish all of the PW entrants for good time, success and all the best. I will be watching you all.

Actually, by streaming the video, it will add more pressure.
In the past, only people who attended the competition will know how a person play. Now the whole world. The positive side,however, one will be well known.

oh now I remember, Ken must be the Alkan etude guy! (from "They came to play") I watched that late one night recently-- my Netflix account was expiring at midnight It was very interesting. Haha I actually took notes, I guess in case I felt like discussing it on PC. Somehow a filmmaker's presentation seems more... real? than live streaming? Even though more artificial and edited, obviously. I wish MarkC would do the D664 early on though... not saying he would not have a chance otherwise...that is a favorite of mine. When I first started paying attention to PC forum, I remember someone had just performed that and somehow missed the first A in the left hand, which threw off the whole performance, I believe that was MarkC but didn't know any names yet. I was thinking "But what if someone in the audience really wanted to hear that and couldn't care less about a flub in the first measures."

Thanks for remembering! -- not to mention for loving the piece too.

It was the 2nd movement, and not an "A" but the low D of the first chord -- and it turned out that I wasn't even right about having missed it! While I was playing, I thought for sure that the bass note hadn't sounded, and maybe some other note down there as well -- but when I heard the recording afterwards, I realized that all the notes did sound, and that the chord was fine -- it was just that the bass note didn't come out quite the way I wanted, and I got fooled into thinking it hadn't come out at all. Our minds can play tricks on us....

WOW, I just tuned in to this!! Thank you for the good wishes. Someone asked awhile back on this thread about Dominic Piers Smith, He was not old enough to be in the Youtube Competition. He IS old enough now! talk about being an amateur, have you checked his website??

Mark C and others who enter the competiton:
you guys are my hero's. I am very proud of you. I would like to follow your footsteps.

I am going to make this one as my personal goal - I would like to be good enough to enter the contest in 5 years from now.

Judy, I can make a website like Dominic's too. Do you want me to make one for you?

Looking at his website and repertoire, he does not appear to be an amateur pianist.

He apparently meets the criteria, and he wants to be in, so he can be in.

I'm looking forward to meeting him -- and maybe seeing what he can do about designing some cars that I'd like to see.

But you and Judy are certainly right that he's not an amateur pianist in the usual sense -- really he's a professional in two fields, one of which is piano performance. The trouble is, you could argue that about a lot of people in these amateur competitions, and there's no perfect way to draw the line. But it's true that you could argue it about him more than most. Here's his bio.

Regarding this part, "Dominic’s pianistic capabilities....have been compared to those of renowned masters such as Van Cliburn and Moura Lympany," heck, my pianistic capabilities have been compared to Horowitz! (Not favorably, but they've been compared!)

Good luck, FarmGirl! That's a great goal to have. I would still be too young in five years, which is a good thing, because I don't think I would be ready.

Virtually everybody can be in the competition if he or she really wants to be in. Only people at Horowitz, Lang Lang, Kissin, etc caliber MAY have hard time to enter Van Cliburn Amateur. Who knows, Alfred Brendel may join VCA in the future, because he is retired now.

For example this person ex VCA winner. Reading from his Wikipedia page, he appears to dedicate all his life as a musician. Very few amateur competitions that have an effort to exclude this type of people. Only Chicago, and Houston Chopin Amateur that have the provision to exclude this type of people. Actually, only Houston Chopin Amateur competition that I consider a real amateur competition, because it really prevents people with music major from competing.

For the preliminary round, I'm playing the first movement of Schumann Fantasie.

I agree about chopping up big sonatas and such. But there is so little time!

I'm chopping up the Medtner, too. It's from a 8-movement suite called Forgotten Melodies, No.1.

And the Alkan etude is just one from the set of 12...

The boundary between "pro" and "amateur" is far blurrier than we tend to think.

There are a number of "professional" artists whose main source of income is something other than the art, be it a trust fund or spousal income.

I am not too troubled by pros under the amateur skin. Sure, they take up the slots, but no professional would gain any prestige from winning an "amateur" competition and everything to lose from not winning.

There are many who majored in music in college, but went onto other studies and a different career path. Given the minimum age of 35, it eliminates those who couldn't launch a career, but still trying.

Look, if Jon Nakamatsu didn't with gold in 1997, he could have entered in the 1999 IPCOA as an amateur. He was a full-time high school teacher when he won gold.

Jon Nakamatsu is totally an aberration. It is the same like saying all blind people cannot play piano well, how about Tsuiji? He is one of the millions. My point is that most ex-professionals play much better than most normal people. If I were those ex-professionals, I would not even interested in joining any amateur competition. As you said they gain nothing. I really think the "desire" to win something overwhelms everything, and they know their chance of twinning is very pretty high too, or at least get into final.

Bump! It's streaming now! Loving it so far.

Neat oh. It's at Van Cliburn amateur competition, live streaming

And here is the schedule of performances of the preliminary round.

Right now there is a Japanese physicist performing two movements from Scriabin's Sonata #3 in F-sharp minor.

Now gotta get back out to my garden.. hot sun... dirt...

Interesting that most so far choose to perform with the music.

That's an interesting version of Invention No. 8...

I like how the repertoire choice at this competition is so varied. Is it like that with all amateur competitions (or at least most of them)?

And then on Wednesday, Rubinstein competition starts up and people are playing Rach 3, Tchiakovsky 1, Rach 2, Prokofiev 2, Chopin 1, the usual... At least one of them is doing Brahms 2!

Just got home from work and turned it on, first thing! Exciting, a (retired) elementary music teacher is performing now.

Darned "amateurs".. makes you wanna practice around the clock.. or just quit.. Can't use the excuse of "I am no concert pianist or music major" when listening to those "amateurs"..
When is our MC showing off?

Our own Mark Cannon is on at 9:30 pm EDT.

Is anyone besides Mark participating in this? (PW members)

Yes, musica71 (Judy Darst) and Ken Iisaka.

Oh no, he missed the last note of L'isle Joyeuse. I sometimes have nightmares of that happening to me ><

Ah I know!

PS...I know this is bad, but the whole time he was playing that piece, all I could think was "Horowitz played this so much better."

Yeah, Horowitz's version is hard to beat. What's bad is that I was thinking that I play it so much worse. It's a tough piece to keep together until the very end. Missing the last note can be quite painful (literally and figuratively).

Ah, now Ms. Humphrey is giving it a go as well.

She didn't miss the last note! That's something

Yeah, but I actually liked the previous guy's better overall. Mark is next!

And he played well. Very well, actually!

Great job, Mark!

I really enjoyed the poignant emotion displayed in the first piece.

Just listened to Mark C. Beautiful! A very sophisticated "black mass" and a really elegant impromptu.. Loved both pieces. Scriabin must not have known he could be so.. cerebral?
Hope he makes it all the way to the finals and beyond.