TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Pianists must learn to swim, not just dive
A piano competition is not synonymous with a career in music. Rather, the pianist’s musical career starts immediately after winning one.
Change Size
A piano competition is not synonymous with a career in music. Rather, the pianist’s musical career starts immediately after winning one. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he real issue that concerns a young pianist’s career is not winning competitions, but what to do after they win (or fail). This concerns not only the pianist, but it is also a big issue for the competition’s organizer: how to promote the winning musician and present them to the “real world” through promoters.
A piano competition is not synonymous with a career in music. Rather, the pianist’s musical career starts immediately after winning one. The problem is, winning a competition requires diving into it, and while most pianists learn to dive well, they have not learned how to swim.
This was one of the major issues discussed in the first ever Conference of International Piano Competitions (IPC) held at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona on March 19-21. It saw the attendance of 154 representatives of piano competition organizers from all continents, including Africa (the IPC in Rabat, Morocco). It goes without saying that Italy has the largest number of representatives, since it has the greatest number of piano competitions on the planet.
The brains (and hands, all sweaty!) behind the conference is Gustav Alink, a man who has a very rare interest and passion since childhood: piano competitions. Not that he is a musician: He studied music at a young age, but the violin, not piano.
