Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner July Concert Program - Signup and Planning Thread

(Uh, the program order might have to be changed a teeny bit to allow for the missing pieces. I'm looking at possibly leading off with the Inventions so as to still have Bach at the beginning.)

I assume you expect for the highest penalty to be give which is...exactly what now? Really, what exactly can be done to one who is volunteering their time and energy to learn music who suddenly decides to withdraw to avoid substandard results, and the lowering of the overall standard of the recital.

Heather, I think even that sounds too severe. (Not as bad as Poly's stuff though.)

I would beware of putting out any vibes that would make people fearful about coming into these things -- especially since you're just getting the thing established. I'm sure that everyone who volunteered really had thought about it pretty seriously and had serious intentions -- but y'know, sometimes we just misjudge, and sometimes stuff happens. I'd encourage you (and Poly, and everyone) to go easy on it. The disappointment and inconvenience of a couple of withdrawals is nothing compared to the goodness of just having these things, and I think the harsh and judgmental stuff could jeopardize it. You've done great in putting this thing out there and getting it together like you did. It doesn't have to be exactly as planned in order to be great.

I'm looking forward to listening to what's offered.

The Internet is a big place. Life is messy. Therefore, the Internet is a big, messy place. That's a syllogism, right?

I think it is worth noting that e-citals are still a fairly "new" thing in Pianist Corner. Anyone care to count how many Pianist Corner e-citals there have been so far? (Hint: not many.) And, as MarkC just said about vibes, I think it is also worth noting that the Pianist Corner vibe is often not very welcoming; rather, it is often contentious. Why is that, do you suppose? So, I would re-iterate that the least restrictive environment is a good place to start when planning and soliciting participation, and if one needs to control the show, go solo in Member's Recordings and/or WordPress. I'm sure all who offered to participate did so with the best of intentions and high hopes for their performances. Sometimes, things just don't turn out, though, and the artist should always be in control of the release of his/her art. Naive sentiment, huh?

I have often wondered why Pianist Corner is such an intimidating place. I mean, personally, I'm not intimidated by it, but I know a lot of people who are, or who are turned off by the vibe. It's kind of sad. Just sayin'.

Heather, I'd encourage you to take your time in working with what you have to make something of the vision with which you started. I'm sure you'll make a fine presentation of it!

--Andy

Everyone, I have an apology to make...

I am very very very sorry for not being able to participate! Everything was going according to plan, but then an unexpected trip came along. I had to visit a couple of places (outside the country) in order to get in touch with the hospital leading staff because I will have to work in hospitals in 3 years. So I had to go to different countries and either volunteer there or go to the hospital's associated university there.

I am EXTREMELY sorry for messing this up and not being here on time, but I just returned yesterday night and didn't have time to actually finish up I'm very sorry and hopefully I won't let anyone down next time.

Poly, I understand your frustration, and you have the right to be, to be honest. But I hope that you and others will not get an impression of me from this experience, as hard as that may be. Heather and others, thanks for being considerate and compassionate. Hopefully next time I'll have things ready much in advance in case something like this happens.

Again, I'm sorry, please accept this apology

Pover -- I'm sure they'll appreciate what you've said, but I feel bad for you that you feel so bad about it. I would hope that people will feel free to volunteer for these recitals without having to worry about feeling so terribly guilty if it doesn't work out as planned.

Hi Pover, glad you are well and just busy.
I still hope to hear you play that suite, maybe would you consider submitting it to member recordings?

That's fair. I was a bit frustrated at the time. And I think Polyphonist may have thought we were only going to have 50% participation (since only 50% of the people had recordings in by the posted deadline).

It's shaping up to be a good program, just over an hour, which is still not too shabby for a hobby project! The overall feel is pretty mellow, with a couple of high energy pieces spicing things up, and the counterpoint focus does work well. There is some really beautiful playing too, both of complex and of simple pieces.

I'm listening to the program straight through right now. Marvelous work, everyone. This is a treat. Barring any technical difficulties with soundcloud, it will be posted in an hour and 20 minutes

Morning, Heather! I'm looking forward to hearing this program later today, and your revisions in presentation. I thought you had a perfect right to your frustration, briefly put. But then, Pover's post reminds me that there can be situations that simply override the personal commitments that one had made -- as MarkC had cautioned. In general terms, I think the "e-cital" is a good idea, and I for one would hate to see it jettisoned by capricious last-minute withdrawals -- particularly so, when a couple of other pianists willing to participate were told to wait for the next event. Polyphonist's comments may have been harsh, but they were IMO spot-on accurate.

I don't remember why participation was limited in the e-cital... (gonna have to trace that back through the thread in a minute...) I have an intuitive understanding that it was part of "the challenge." But I think *every* e-cital we've had on Pianist Corner (and there have not been many, yet) has had one or more withdrawals at or close to deadline. Life is just too messy, and I'm saying that you can pretty much count on someone needing to bail out at the last minute for *what-ever* reason, especially when the glue that holds this community together is rather weak. There are priorities, and then, there are priorities.

*IF* participation is to be limited, perhaps there are those who don't make the cut who would be willing to serve as "alternates," or "understudy." But then, there's the vibe thing...

--Andy

Posted! http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2306955.html#Post2306955 see new thread.

Cinnamonbear, the reason for limiting participants was so that the program would not become too long. The distinctive feature of this particular recital was to create a performance that could be enjoyed at one go, with its own dramatic arc, as a single experience. Of course not everyone will listen that way, but that was the idea. So it is kind to the audience to have a maximum time. We capped the time at 2 hours max (8 performers at 15 minutes per performer.) We ended up with just over 1 hour which is still a satisfying performance.

Our upcoming suites recital is more like a multi-night concert marathon
Also great, of course, just a different format and different listening experience.

There have been at least 8 and all of them had dropouts. It should be expected.

Why not "overbook" the way airlines and hotels do? Damon points out that all of the e-citals here have had dropouts. If you were to overbook by, say, 25%, you would end up closer to a full recital. Better yet, look at the 8 e-citals and calculate the average dropout rate and use that to determine how much to overbook. The worst thing that could happen would be to end up with a slightly long recital.

Yes.
Main thing, as with just about everything: Never expect perfection. Never necessarily expect things to go exactly as planned, because they probably won't. And there's nothing wrong with looking at the length of these recitals as a range rather than a specific number. If it winds up being 10% longer or shorter than exactly what was aimed for, no big problem. In fact, I'd say no problem at all. When I plan my own recitals, I'm usually aware that they could well tolerate an additional piece or two. (And of course that nobody would mind if I omitted a piece or two.)

The closest thing to a real problem that I can see would be if the whole program were built around one major piece, and that person dropped out or changed his program to something else. But even in a case like that, it seems like the program would still be fine -- just different.

Hear, hear! Yes, overbook. And regarding the difficulty of attaining perfection, agree again. That last 40% is really tough. (I can think of a piece or two of mine to leave out...)

That's a good idea. If there is interest in doing this again, maybe we should have 10 participants (or more if two people want to share a slot).