Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Rotary Music what?

Even though the two weeks of the Rotary Music Competition oops I mean Festival have now come and gone, the work as a teacher is by no means finished. The week following the festival, although less hectic in scheduling, is still stressful.

I am a liar. I didn't like doing it, but I lied to my students. I told them this wasn't a competition. And they believed me. That is until they performed, got some great feedback from the adjudicators, and then watched another kid get handed a trophy. This week I have had to explain to my students firstly, that I lied and just wanted them to do their best while not worrying about being competitive, and secondly, that no matter how they placed, they are worthwhile students and musicians.

I realize that I set my students up to be shocked. I simply figure that it is stressful enough for students to prepare a piece, memorize it, miss school, get dressed up, and perform (perfectly of course) in front of friends, family and a judge. Adding the competitive factor just doesn't seem right when you look at the long list of inevitable performing stressors. And really, how does one explain how music is made into a competition?

I thought I'd take a stab at seeing how the words in the title "Music Festival" came to inevitably mean 'Music Competition' as they do to us here today, in Medicine Hat. With the help of dictionary.com, I found the following:
  • MUSIC - an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and colour
  • FESTIVAL - a period or program of festive activities, cultural events, or entertainment
Wow! That sounds pretty great! A program of festive activities where you can express ideas and emotions through sound! Nothing about winning so far though...
ah ha! There it is. It seems like a stretch to make the arts into something competitive. Isn't the very nature of an art non-competitive?
  • ART - the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or more than ordinary significance

It follows then, that a music festival should be a place where people are entertained, hear something extraordinary, and share themselves and their talents. How have such innocent, beautiful and noble virtues become clouded by rivalry and supremacy? How are one person's ideas and emotions better than another's? How is one performance better than another? Sure, one kid may have missed a note while another kid didn't. One kid may have played Rachmaninoff and another played a C-major scale. Does a person really set out to learn Rachmaninoff, C-major scale, Schubert, the box-step, a flawless legato line, or even the meaning of a simple quarter note in order to be better than a peer?

At what point can we gather and build each other up? Why can't we inspire one another because of the commonalities that unite us; right now, it seems, that our commonalities pit us against each other. Imagine the day when kids can listen to their adjudications and feel comfortable accepting constructive criticism because they know there is no one in the room looking to be better THAN someone else, just be better themselves. The festival would be a place where the art of music and true friendships would blossom.

This whole business of a festival rather than a competition really came to a head for me when I was preparing a student for the RoseBowl. For those of you who don't know, the RoseBowl is a competitive concert featuring the best performers from the entire festival. The single best performer at this concert wins the RoseBowl, and is thus dubbed the best musician of the festival. While looking over the concert program, I read the following quote on the front page:

"In music festivals the object is not to gain a prize, not to defeat a rival, but to pace one another on the road to excellence." Sir H. Walford Davies

I was shocked. Who put that quote there? It's not about the prize or the competition? The RoseBowl has not one, but three adjudicators!!! Their sole purpose (and the sole purpose of the entire concert) is to decide who is best. What is going on here? Who is selling us these lies? (sorry again to some of my students)

The competitive factor seems to foster the worst in people: parents who live vicariously through their children (22 classes by one kid? seriously?), teachers who use the festival to increase their exposure and prestige (auditions to be accepted into a teacher's studio? that's a little backwards!), kids performing to win money and "hardware" (trophies, that is).

Perhaps my second most frustrating moment was when I found myself feeling tense while waiting for the adjudicator to reveal the results for one of my students. I now ask myself: why was I tense? Is it because my student may beat another teacher's student? And, it would follow, of course (hope you can hear the sarcasm here), that I would then be a better teacher. I am frustrated because I had fallen into the trap of the competition.

The blame can't be put solely on the students, parents, and teachers. We've been set up by the people who have gone before us: the past Rotarians, past parents and teachers, past winners and losers, and the now grown-up students. We've been set up by the rules and regulations. The Rotary Club prides itself on sponsoring the festival for 54 years and they have done a great job. It is truly an amazing feat to get this entire thing organized. Anne Carrier, the club, and all the volunteers are doing fantastic work. It is now time to change; it is not necessary to offer the exact same festival year after year. Arts competitions are an old-school way of thinking; from the stuffy, overly formal competitive atmosphere at each venue, right down to the signage, programs, and red blazers.

This is a call for change. Let's have a real festival - a festive festival. It means that there won't be a grand RoseBowl winner. You won't have a chance at getting a trophy. There will be no opportunity to gloat. It also means that there won't be eight RoseBowl losers, there won't be over a thousand participants trophy-less, and there will be no misunderstanding as to why one kid is or isn't better than another. Instead, the focus can be on the art and entertainment of music, our common talents and interests, and building one another up. If you want to compete, baseball season is right around the corner.

I wrote a lot. Probably too much. The Rotary Music Festival uses another quote on their website:

"Where words fail, music speaks" ~ Hans Christian Anderson

Monday, March 8, 2010

Rotary Music Festival - Thoughts

Hi all! I have no idea who reads this anymore, but after such a long day, I will use this as a means of organizing my thoughts, reflecting back, and looking forward.

The Rotary Music Festival is such an interesting, dynamic, and complicated experience. Organizers, teachers, students, performers, accompanists, adjuticators, and volunteers all come together with a common purpose: to make music. The logistics of an event like this seem huge, even impossible; the preperation seems unmountable at times I'm sure. Teachers and students prepare in advance for days, weeks, months, and even years.

I never participated much in music festivals when I was younger (more about that at a later time perhaps), but I am now participating as a teacher and accompanist. It is only the second day of the festival, and so much has happened. I had a huge day today: accompanying 13 kids, warm-ups, lessons, three choir performances. Lots to ponder. I like lists; they organize. Here are my Rotary Music Festival Day 2 lists:

Failures:
  • Putting one of my students in the wrong vocal class and almost getting her disqualified. I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention - you live, you learn - won't make that mistake again.
  • Wearing dress shoes all day long. I have the sorest hips in town.
  • Being an ass in Grad school and then having to own up later. The choral adjudicator was my old prof. I wasn't a good student in Grad school.
  • Judging a book by its cover. Always somewhat emberassing when you catch yourself pulling this one...
  • 0 for 2 winning roll-up-the-rims

Successes:

  • Watching a trio of voice students flabbergast an adjudicator. Kids who don't know their own talent amaze me.
  • Witnessing a student cram, with all her might, all the French diction possible into her head to prepare, forget some of it during performance, but still finishing with a smile and a positive result
  • Making a few extra bucks playing the piano. (but I've had to practice)
  • Changing.
  • Having the Children's Choir mezmorize the adjudicator with energy that bubbles over, and voices that sing uninhibitedly
  • Hearing the adjudicator speak to the parents of the choristers: "Please continue to support your children by keeping them in choir. They are learning, growing, and experiencing a much more valuable form of music than what a finger and an iPod can bring."
  • The Girls' Choir got the highest choral mark of the day with their performances.
  • Trusting in the natural leadership abilities which have lay dormant in each choir when the conductor can't be there to help
  • Getting the Adult Choir out of their comfort zones a bit, working hard, performing at festival, and being succesfull.
  • Having a beer with my old prof and apologizing.
  • Enjoying the overwhelming feeling of pride that all my students bring me.
  • 0 for 2 FREE roll-up-the-rims.

And thats only day two.

~Brad