The first year of my master's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, I was fortunate enough to make it to the finals of the semi-annual concerto competition.
The piece was Mozart's Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467.
I didn't win. But that's okay. Just making it to the finals gave me the much-needed reassurance that getting into CIM wasn't a fluke.
The range of comments from the judges was my biggest takeaway. My teacher shared them with me at my next lesson. They looked something like this.
Judge #1: Beautiful, melodic lines.
Judge #2: Needs longer lines.
Judge #3: Lovely range of pianistic colors.
Judge #4: Too many colors. Does not appreciate the beauty of simplicity.
I learned two things that day.
Number one. Music comes across differently to different people, and each person has their own measure of what "good" is.
Number two. Music competitions are kind of silly, when you think about it.
