It has been a week since DD and I returned from our Goa trip. We have slowly geared back to the normal routine of university, online, violin, piano, vocal classes and so on. It has been a week of triumph, disappointment, learning, growth and tons of music :-).
DD participated in a national violin competition in Goa; and she was competing with some of the pros who were much older in age and had more years of experience in playing the violin. She came to know of the competition about 2 months back and worked hard on it with a lot of excitement. She knew that her chances of winning were very slim considering all the older, more experienced violinists who were taking part in the competition. Nevertheless, she was determined to participate in it for an experience of being with talented musicians and learning from the pros. Since this was not her first violin competition or solo, there was not much of preparation needed to help her feel comfortable about playing for an audience or a jury.
The new rules of the competition were a bit uncommon. There were two rounds in the competition. In the first round, 10 violinists were selected, out of which 5 of them were from the previous competition winners. This many felt was an unfair selection of 5 members. Because we saw that many who won the competition two years back did not keep up with practice due to many personal reasons and were not stellar musicians. Yet they got to be on the second round automatically without having to compete in the first round. If they had competed in the first round, a few would not have been even selected for the second round. Their playing was not up to the level of expectations. But the rule of this competition is that the 5 winners from the previous year competition get an automatic entry into the second round the following year of the competition. Then out of the 10 selected for the first round, 5 winners were selected to the second round. And finally a public concert of the 5 violinists lead the judges to choose 1st through 5th prizes. The jury was made of some of the accomplished musicians from the music departments University of Nuremberg, Germany.
DD topped the first round and moved onto the second round. DD was thrilled to hear the positive comments about her musicality, her intonation, confidence, her presentation, playing ability of the pieces by memory etc etc from the three judges. They were highly impressed with her playing and preparation. During the second round, she tied with another older player and did not make it. During the feedback, she came to learn from the jury that she extremely close to winning but they had had to choose the older player when it came to a tie-up between an older player and an younger one. She was told during the feedback session that she was regrettably too young to be chosen. And the Jury felt though it was an unfair judgement, they felt they had to work with the stipulations of the committee that organizes the competition. But the feedback she got was particularly powerful. She was told to apply to some of their music conservatories for some serious study and also got invited to their summer music programs and masterclass sessions in Germany, which opened up more opportunities for her that she will be pursuing end of this Spring.
Though DD was disappointed at first, she geared back to her bubbly self soon after. And I loved seeing that attitude of positivity in her. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing at the competition and meeting some of the well known musicians/faculty. She got to play for some of the senior faculty in Goa who were very impressed by her violin playing abilities and musical potential. They want her to come back to Goa to give solo concerts, which she is now thinking seriously about. She also came to know of yet another opportunity that would enable her to play with Kazakh musicians, if she chooses to pursue that route. All in all, it was a fantastic experience for her.
In addition, she infused herself with music all week. She had a fabulous night of a music jamming session in a cafe with and for total strangers and other music lovers, which went on until 2am. People just gathered around sipping wine or coffee or lemon soda, doing sing alongs or playing the guitar or just being a great audience. DD first started off playing solos with just a few people in the room watching her play. But then hearing her play the violin, two other violinists joined her, and then came along two guitarists and couple of singers, all from the crowd that had gathered to hear the music :-). She played Goan, Portugese and Danish songs for the people from those countries in the room. She sang ABBA and Wizard of Oz songs with another Danish singer while playing the violin. THAT was a surprise to me as I had no idea she could guess the lyrics to sing along with them. She made-up accompaniments in her violin on the spot for the Goan and Portugese songs and won everyone's heart in the audience. She was in her element and it was wonderful to see her happy. AND, she found a few wonderful friends who are now on FB, which enables her to keep in touch with all of them :-). It became the most unforgettable experience of Goa for both DD and I.
Considering Goa is very touristy, it was not very surprising to see people from varied parts of the world in the cafe. Goa seems to be a place for musicians both classical and folk. We walked a lot in and around Panjim and took their cute little Goa Rickshaws with 'doors' called 'tuk tuk' :-). We wondered why they had not implemented such doors in the rickshaws of the south. And I missed having my wonderful young photographer son to capture all the beauty and serenity of Goa. And I regrettably forgot to take some of the wonderful photos of DD in her finest dresses that she wore for the competition. Duh! I would have liked to do some sight-seeing and also to get out of Panjim, where we were put up for the entire week. But maybe another time...:-).
background DD met from US and UK
This is what DD has to say about this competition:
"The competition was a fascinating experience that induced me to develop very much musically. Though I held no expectations with regard to my position in the rounds, I was of course thrilled when I passed-and topped-the first round. I believe that that the best part was the in-depth feedback from the judges that gave me a lot of information concerning my musicality, technique, etc.
Since this competition occurs every two or three years, I am unsure whether I would be able to participate again. But all in all, this was definitely a unique, wonderful experience that I would do again if I could! :)"
And I realized one more very important thing!!
Both my kids write MUCH MUCH better than I...
Oh well, I try!
Music all night...
One of the Danish gal singing ABBA with DD
Gals from Denmark on a 6 week India tour.
Immersed in music....
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