vailian

It is so hard to judge these kids. they are all talented (after all, they got to the national level in the competition) and have worked hard.
But how do you differentiate between a group that plays flawlessly, but playing a piece that requires almost no instrumental expertise, and on the other hand a group that has chosen repertoire on a very advanced technical level, where there are bound to be mistakes?
And we in the jury had an argument (now ongoing for 2 days) over a group who wowed the audience with their performance- they sang and danced and played recorders, had terrific charisma-- but who couldn't be really considered as expert recorder players (the piece required playing skills that someone with a musical background could have picked up in a couple of weeks).
I judged the group on the merits of how they brought the piece over with their combined skills (and they had honed the performance to perfection), giving them a fairly high point count. But there were colleagues on the jury who gave them what were in effect failing grades because they had not demonstrated a whole lot of technical skill on their instruments.
This is probably a fundamental difference between the American and German way of seeing it. I am a sucker for a good show.
I get in the same kind of argument regularly with my girlfriend, who rejects a LOT of music as "inferior". I just say it is different.

And as I write this I am sad because I am missing my son and his band playing in Cologne because I am stuck here.