The competition was yesterday. I must say, we both played splendidly! Considering how nervous I was and the caliber of the other accompanists (like one was a professional pianist and another was a professor at the college), I did very well. And so did Clay. And we got second place, out of five finalists!! So he doesn’t get to play it with the orchestra, but I think that was a great showing for his first try. He can always do it again next year. The winner was a pianist.
The professional pianist/accompanist was Katie Lanzer. Actually Dr. Kate Lanzer. She charges $55 an hour to play for people for things like this. I can’t imagine what the entire bill is, what with rehearsals and such. She surely doesn’t rehearse with them as much as I do, or it would cost hundreds of dollars. Anyway, my student did better than hers, which is not totally her fault, of course. But I did help Clay a lot with his musicality, especially on the cadenzas. He didn’t do everything I coached him to do, but he was starting at zero experience playing a cadenza, so he did much, much better than he was doing back in November!
So so so so glad that is finally over!!!!
Sounds like fun! Was that the competition that was supposed to interfere with your trip?
Yes, it was. So we aren’t going to be able to go until Spring. Bummer. But we are taking a longer spring vacation this year. Friday, the weekend, the whole next week and weekend and the following Monday and Tuesday.