Are music competitions necessary?

musicprnt
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 12:04:15 +0000

I would be careful to make claims that ‘if you win a competition, you can use that in appealing for more aid’ as a broad based claim, or even as a reason to do competitions, one experience doesn’t prove a rule. First of all, ‘winning a competition’ may not mean much depending on the competition. If you are talking a program like Juilliard, for example, and the kid has won some local concerto competition, even assuming Juilliard would look at that (which I am pretty certain they don’t), they have kids who have competed in major international competitions like the Menuhin Juniors, Queen Elizabeth, and on that level, who apply there, so it is unlikely just any competition would count.

It also depends on the instrument, Piano tends to put more emphasis on competitions then other instruments, in part because of the difficulty of Piano students getting playing opportunities, given that it is primarily a solo instrument (obviously, piano’s do chamber as well, but it is not the predominant form). So with a piano student, a competition win might influence things, with another instrument it may not. It depends on the program, too, and their desire to attract high level students, a place that gets them routinely because of name would be a lot less impressed IME then a program that wants to build up their name…it all depends. Financial aid appeals are generally based upon how much they want a student, and that in turn is what they bring to the school.

One of the biggest pieces about advice on here (or anywhere), is to realize it is based on individual experiences, there is no science to this and that includes my own comments. People will tell you that getting into music school is this science, that ‘you do the audition, you are good enough, you get it’ and that isn’t totally true, there are all kinds of "buts’ to that. People will tell you that their D or S went to X program, and did well, someone else would scratch their heads and say “My kid went there, program stunk”…it is all very subjective. I heard one woman brag that her kid got into Juilliard because he had such impressive SAT/AP tests, etc, and that was her bragging about his prowess, I can guarantee you his grades and such had nothing to do with him getting in there shrug. Even with things like what constitutes a competitive program or a ‘good’ program varies, I have heard people extol programs that my S has done summer programs with from that program and he said they weren’t particularly high level, it is all about perspectives and such.