First time to Music Festival

[CURIOUSMIND]

We recently hired a new teacher, so got these Festival things new to us.
I checked that Festival website, still very confused. Obviouly our teacher will do the entry, then I have no idea what to expect next.

Talking to the teacher at lesson time is very expensive, so please can anybody give me some idea?

What is the 'class'? Group lesson (maybe by a famous teacher)? Master class?Everybody needs to prepare , play the same piece?

Do you have to go to the class in your age group?

Is the competition like you wait for your name, then come to play, then that's it?

I only have experience of one festival, so here is what happens at ours.

'Class' is the title of the category, eg piano age 9 & 10 or junior school choirs.

Some classes have a set piece, some a free choice. Some may give a guide eg Grade 6 and above. If it is a free choice there is sometime a time limit.

There is an adjuticator who will adjudicate your performance and give feeback, award marks and certificates/trophies

You play when its your turn, then at the end of each class, the adjudicator gives feedback about what she/he was looking for in the class, then comments on each entrant individually.

Yes, you have to enter the class in your age group, but it depends on the wording. Our festival tends to be specific and states 9&10, 11&12. There is the odd category that is 17 and under. Some festivals have 10 and under, 12 and under etc, so if you were 8 and very talented you could enter both. Wafflenose's DD did this and won both last year.

Most of all it is a performance opportunity and my DC thoroughly enjoy it. The play individually and in school and youth groups.

I thought festivals finished by now?

Usually, yes, it is a competition but with very useful feedback at the end.

Hope your new teacher means next ac. year, usually takes few months at least to polish your program.

Each class (category) has time limit - 5 mins, 7 mins, 15 mins etc so you would select 2-3 contrasting pieces (the teacher will hopefully).

They also say they judge the musical quality not the standard you are at - i.e. it is better to play a piece a bit below your current standard but very musically.

Anyway - its teacher's job to pick pieces, chose right class etc.
And web sights usually have all the info, syllabus etc.

Thank you Raspberry and Pianomama.
The festival is next month. According to the website, we are 2 months too late to entry the competition!I don't understand how could our teacher still do it.
But anyway it looks like what Rasburry said we can go for the 16 and under group, only in this group,or even 18 and under you can play at your own choice, so we can play his grade exam pieces. If so, won't it be embarrassing that my Ds1 play much easier pieces than others maybe 16 years old ?
Don't know, maybe just go for it for an experience.Oh, not sure .

"we are 2 months too late to entry the competition!I don't understand how could our teacher still do it"

Festival organisers have room to be flexible. I mean, its not as if they have some governing body that hands down rules set in concrete.

"it is better to play a piece a bit below your current standard but very musically"

Based on the festivals that I've attended, the kid with the well played but easy piece never wins :)

We've only ever been to our local festival (not counting international competitions where it gets very seriously competitive).
16 and under sounds a bit challenging -CURIOUSMIND , I am under the impression your DC is 8-9?.
The problem is that unless you perform first, DC will have to sit and listen to the big kids performing before him and I expect that might be intimidating for him.
Unless of cause he is plays at G8 and higher standard already and is likely to be on the similar level as 16 yo.

PoshTun - I didn't mean to play G1 pieces in under 16 class :) , but how shall I put it - musicality before virtuosity. If you play fiendishly difficult piece they will still judge every note , every phrase etc regardless of the age.
So it is better to play a piece where you absolutely technically secure and can produce lovely phrasing , sound, express characters etc then to stumble on the super-fast piece due to performance nerves.
My DS recently played a piece from over year ago for a very important and competitive audition which I thought was way too easy for him, but it worked very well for him :)

DS2 aged 9 played in the 17 and under jazz piano at ours with a short Grade 3 piece and came second. He really wanted to enter this particular class. Piano teacher and I said fine, but he was just to enjoy doing it as she was entering several older students at a higher grade than him, and with more experience.

DS2 played his short Grade 3 piece really well. Most other older children played their Grade 5 and 6 pieces not as well on the day itself.

The winner played a Grade 7 piece extremely well.

Howver the year before, when DS1 played in it for performance experience, there were entrants Grade 8 plus who were a different calibre again. I think in these type of classes you can never tell what you are going to be up against.

We really try and emphasise the 'festival' side of it. It is good also for them, I think, to hear other players.

Good luck to your DS curiousmind.

Hi there, you've had some great advice already! I would agree that your ds should play pieces that he can do perfectly and musically. Playing something harder but not as well will probably not win him any extra prizes. He can go up an age group too if the wording says "XX and UNDER" but the fact he is younger will not be taken into account - he would be expected to play whatever he does well, and hopefully on a par with the others. I once entered a 7 year old girl who played a grade 2 piece beautifully, but somebody else won, with a slightly easier piece which was flawless.

Last November, my DD and I did our local festival for a bit of fun and experience. We had no idea what to expect (the 7 year old I once entered is now 20 so it's been a while!) and didn't treat it as a competition at all, just a chance to perform. DD was 6 years and 3 weeks old, and played two very comfortable pieces in the 8 and under class. She then saved some grade 1-2 pieces for the 10 and under class, and like Raspberry said, she won both. She did have the hardest pieces, but was also the only one not to make a significant error, which is probably why she won. I made sure she did a fun, non-competitive class too! The trophies are due back over the summer, and she's determined to enter again and try to win them back!

I hope your ds really enjoys himself. It really is a great experience, and also a good, fun and relatively cheap way of getting some great feedback. DD was told to try and improve her legato playing next.

Hi, there,
Thank you to all for sharing your experience with me. I decide to treat this first festival as a festival only this time.Ds1 is going to play 2 exam pieces.So, very clear he needs to work it up to the best best standard.
Thank you again, great to get advice from people out there somewhere!

Take advice from the teacher about which class to enter.

DD had done the local festival for two years with guidance from her string teacher and had received really constructive and valuable criticism from very encouraging adjudicators.
Her woodwind teacher wasn't local and, when festival time next came round DD decided to enter the woodwind competition anyway but entered the category that was right for her age (under 14) but it turned out she should have been in the under 15 category for ability. This seemed to get up the adjudicator's nose and when adjudicator announced the U14 winners she said she wasn't going to give the prize to the best player but to the one who fitted the category best. She seemed to think DD was a ringer and was really snotty about it.

unitarian - My DS was 9 when he entered his first music festival. He was Grade 5 violin at the time. It was our first time so we didn't know what to expect so when one 9 year old after another stood up to play Grade 3-ish pieces with varying levels of proficiency we thought "Oh s*%t! This is going to be embarrasing". We were expecting more serious competition so DS had prepared a Grade 6 piece.

If the rolling of eyes could make a noise then the other parents would have drowned out DC's playing. The difference here was that our adjudicator awarded the prize to the best 9 year old on the day.

PS. The next year we entered DS in the ability category as opposed to the age one :)

Poosh - I think adjudicators are, on the whole, pretty marvellous and give very fair criticism so I think festivals are a great thing.
I noticed that this particular one wasn't adjudicating at all the following year - there had been some festival organisers in the room at the time and they looked askance at her decision.
In other ways it turned out well. DD had a chance to play a beautiful piece of music in a hall with fantastic acoustics and the excellent 'duty' accompanist also decided to just go for it. It was one hell of a performance and it gave her the confidence she needed to get into a junior conservatoire.

Can't help sharing my pround moment with you all:
My Ds1 entered junior recital class,won the trophy with a outstanding mark and another trophy for exceptional performance.
The adjudicator , made fair comments for everybody, to some details and about some general problems, like pedalling!
From this, our first festival experience , my impression is you should enter in the ability catefory . Compared to the expensive exam , 2 weeks waiting for the results, this fetival thing is pretty good.We will do it again!

Congrats CURIOUS - "Outstanding" marks are hard to get - on the fest my DS went it was only 2 across all piano classes and that was covered in the local paper as an unusually high achievement that year! Quite often they are not awarded as the pieces judged on merit regardless age etc.
Well done DS1 !

Well done him! You must be very proud.

Thank you Pianomama and Roisin! Iam so pround to sit next to the winner.

Well done to your DS. Thank you for letting us know how he got on.