Music Academy Competitions - 2008

[sumathibhuvarahan]

Music Academy conducted the annual competitions for the various categories yesterday. The Veena competition that involved performing an RTP was cancelled since there were only two participants. There should be a minimum of three participants for any competition and academy is very strict about this.

Unfortunately, the two participants had traveled all the way from Mysore along with their Veena and came to know about the cancellation only upon reaching the venue. It seems like Academy did not take any initiative to inform the participants about the cancellation.

[shankarabharanam]

I faced not at the Academy but here in Bombay once where we were two...Unfortunately the Sabhas don't encourage. In my opinion if there are two participants, the sabhas should conduct and depending on their performance they can decide. I can only remember my guru Smt Mangalam Muthuswamy who used to say, " As it is there are not many takers for this instrument and if they don't encourage youngsters then it is sad. But i can only pray the almighty to help these kids." This is a regular phenomenon as far as competitions are concerned. I also faced this in Chennai when me and my friend were to participate in different categories and when we reached the venue, we were told since we were the sole participant it was cancelled. I at least a couple of days before they would know and once the entries close they should inform the participant. Even Shanmukhananda in Mumbai did the same...Unfortunately the Sabhas who are supposed to support youngsters don't do and finally i have seen so many cases where students discontinue learning and switch to either violin or vocal.

[ramanathan]

It seems like Academy did not take any initiative to inform the participants about the cancellation.

I am not sure what happened in this particular case, but it could be a last-minute thing that there were only one or two participants. Many people might register/sign-up but decide to pull out at the last minute, leaving only a couple of participants in the fray. Organizers surely can't be blamed for that.

To run a competition regardless of the number of participants is sometimes the judges' discretion.... there is a story from the Academy itself to back this up. Several years ago, among the various annual competitions at MA, there was one exclusively devoted to padam / javali. It so happened that one particular year (1983), there was only ONE participant - a girl - that turned up on the actual competition day though several had signed up. The judges - a panel of three eminent vidwans - informed the sole participant about this but sternly added that she (the participant) could not expect to walk away with the prize just because there was no other competitor. They made the girl sing not one or two, but several full pieces before being satisfied that she was worthy of a prize from the Academy. The judges were Sripada Pinakapani (that year's SK designate), T. M. Thyagarajan & C. S. Krishna Iyer. The girl went on to become a popular musician, is one of today's leading stars and happens to be my colleague. She told me this story today, while I was driving her to the Academy to be a judge herself for the Swati Tirunal & Mysore Vasudevachar kriti competitions!

[vasanthakokilam]

ramanathan: Thanks for that nice anecdote. The eminent judges did the right thing.

The out of towners who eagerly come to perform should not be penalized. If there are not enough participants, they should still be allowed to perform instead of canceling the competition. It is the judge's discretion whether to award them the prize or not. But even if the judges think the quality is not up to the standard, they should be recognized for their participation with a certificate of participation or something equivalent.

To keep things symmetric and fair, even if there are the minimum number of participants and if none of them are upto par, then the judges should have the freedom and discretion to not award the prize to anyone but issue only a certificate of participation. I am not sure if that is part of the rules.

Above all, these should be properly disclosed to the participants at registration time.

[arasi]

Ramanathan,
Thanks for the anecdote about the 'eminent vidushi! She became a class act! As you say, the organizers can't be blamed for last minute 'no show's.
I echo vasanthakokilam's suggestions: the rules of the contest should spell it out for the contestants about cancellations. Yes, at the contest, they can be asked to sing (play) after all. At least, they get to see the result of preparing diligently for the competion by singing before eminent vidwans. They in turn could say encouraging words to the youngsters and give them suggestions about the areas they need to improve on. The organizers could offer them some refreshments and say some kind words . These simple acts of kindness will keep them in the fold and might encourage them to compete again the next year...

[PUNARVASU]

Instead of being'competitive' in nature, they can be 'qualifying '' in nature; by this, they can be judged according to the standard set by the organisers and awarded prizes.
Some times it so happens that thre are nearly 20 or more participants-none of the high standard- still one of them gets the first prize because he/she was the best among the lot. In such cases the organisers can even declare that none qualified for the first or second prize and best gets only the third prize.

[kaapi]

To keep things symmetric and fair, even if there are the minimum number of participants and if none of them are upto par, then the judges should have the freedom and discretion to not award the prize to anyone .

VK,
This has also happened during one of the years in the fifties in the pallavi competition. The judges included one of ALB and PMI. The judges felt that none of the competitors were up to the mark and did not award the prize to anyone.

[kumarakshi]

In Singapore though all participants in Veena Open Category gave RTP as one of their choices, the Judges did not ask for the same.