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
|
|  |
