Indianapolis Violin Competition

Indianapolis Violin Competition September 25, 2010

I had the pleasure of being present for most of tonight’s finale in the 2010 Indianapolis Violin Competition. Unfortunately being there as a family meant we couldn’t stay until the very end and hear the judges’ decision. But we got to enjoy live performances of the Sibelius and Tchaikovsky violin concertos.

Neither piece ever made the impression on me via a recording that they did tonight. The Sibelius concerto has so much dynamic energy (at least as performed this evening!) and in the slow movement of the Tchaikovsky concerto, you notice the “conversations” between the violin and other solo instruments in a way I never did when listening to a recording.

In theory you can listen to recordings of the performances (including tonight’s!) via the competition’s web site. In practice I’ve found they tend not to work all the way through – although that may just be because lots of people around the world are following it live, and so it may work better in days to come.

I’m grateful to the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra for making our attendance possible. The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra will be holding a play-a-thon two weeks from now (members will be playing all day at a local McDonalds two weeks from now). If you have a passion for supporting the arts and giving opportunities to urban youth to have access to music education, and would like to sponsor a participant, let me know! (There should even be a guest appearance by yours truly as accompanist at some point).


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