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«Claviarium»

There are only two days left to send an application in order to take part in this competition - the deadline is March 31st, 2012.

Competition will take place in Moscow, Russia.

Conditions and registration page are available here: http://claviarium.com/

Good luck!

What does a Youth Competition mean?

Never mind, the poster is kind of confusing, but the title of the posting here is clear.

Even more so, what does youth amateur mean??

If you're real young, how do you know yet what you are or aren't a professional at?


You must be much smarter than I am.

Maybe because it is organized by a University? Is it only for students? I don't have time to read everything right now, but it could be a reason.

So then how is "amateur" meaningful?
Students are neither amateurs, nor not amateurs.

As we're seeing, it isn't clear at all.

I think there's just something wrong with the terminology, period.
But pending explanation, I might convert the period to a semi-colon.

Well, yeah, it is not a good definition, but I find incorrect definitions almost every day somewhere...
But (as I said) I haven't visited their website (too busy right now), so I don't know if they explain more there.

Well, what would you think "amateur" could mean in this context?

I'm loving that it seems there's no possible answer to that.

I don't know for sure, but just like the Van Cliburn Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is for people over a certain age I think, this could be for amateurs under a certain age (young people whose main activity is not the piano - if we don't want to talk about a regular income).
Have you actually visited the website?

The Conditions are here:
http://claviarium.com/old/index.html

Actually the answer is that only aged 18 up to 35 are allowed to participate. Also there are two categories: Amateur and GrandAmater. In the first one the participant mustn't have musical education at all. In the second category the participant might have a school education, but not a college as long as I understand! That's why the name of the competition has these two words in it - Youth and Amateur ;-)

Marianne, I read the Claviarium link that you provided, and I agree that the conditions of eligibility are quite clear. I also find the concept quite intriguing: the idea that there is a big enough pool of YOUNG non-music professionals that have sufficient talent to "compete" on a friendly basis with each other. Also, I like their idea of providing two separate "classes" of contestants: one with limited or no "formal" musical training (meaning a degree in music), and one with extensive authorized training in piano performance. Finally, it is interesting to me that this idea arose from a non-music department within Moskva University -- the implication that Classical solo piano music continues to be the avocation of choice for many young professionals, and that there is a home for an event of this sort.

Unfortunately, most of the stuff is in Russian, but the link provided by Marianne did have some English definitions...



This resolves some of the uncertainly, and gives the Organization Committee the last word on making decisions about peoples' qualifications.

They could have been a bit more specific about what kind of training pushes one into the "Grand" amateur level.

For instance, and to personalize things, my son studies piano at his university. He studies with a regular member of the Music School faculty. But he is NOT enrolled in the School of Music. His academic concentration is elsewhere. I would interpret that as Amateur instead of Grand Amateur. Yet he clearly has received "specialized training." That what piano lesson are, after all! So there is some opaqueness in the rules that could be clarified without undue complication.

BTW, I wonder about the purposes of this event. Most young college students don't have the resources to jet over to Moscow for an event that will cost an arm and a leg. Winning your ticket is a low probability outcome, and winning doesn't pay off in career prospects for these "amateurs."

If your son just takes private lesson with the faculty members there, I will put your son in Amateur. But if he minors in music which make him to take other music classes, I will classify your son to be GrandAm.

I like these two categories. Other competitions mingle together people with piano degree with people who just took lesson for fun.

Why would taking a couple of basic music theory classes change anything? Why would a class in ethnomusicology of Java change anything? The number of hours per day that a person plays and studies piano seriously seems to be the major determinant of playing ability.

We're into grey areas, of course. If someone is enrolled in a piano performance major, that seems clear. How about a BA in music education so you can teach middle school band or orchestra? Less clear. A minor in music while you study computers, even less clear.

Minor in music will force you to take not only one or two additional classes. These people are not the typical Joe who likes to play piano, these people are usually people who want to major in piano just are not good enough. That is why they should be in the GrandAm class, but may be in the bottom of the GrandAm class.

Sorry, that's bullch!ps.

I'll be a bit more specific now!

Here is the music minor at the Frost School of Music



This is two theory classes, one literature class and one elective (Javanese Gamelin, for instance ). The rest is standard lessons and playing in ensembles.

This has nothing to do with wanting to be a performance major but not being good enough. It has everything to do with enjoying music but wanting to major in history or computer science. But you go right ahead an infer all sorts of psychological insecurities and self-esteem problems for people.