May 2, 2008
By Susan Elliott
Voting for the Van CLIBURN Foundation’s first YouTube Contest for Amateur Classical Pianists began yesterday, with the Foundation e-mailing ballots to some 50,000 names on its mailing list. Individuals not on the list can also vote, by going to the contest’s site on YouTube, where they will first be asked to submit their e-mail address to the Foundation in order to cast their ballot. No cheating allowed.
You cast your ballot from the list of 41 entrants, each of whom has recorded and uploaded his or her own five- to 10-minute clip on YouTube.
Considering that the age requirement is 35 or over (one of the entrants is in his 70s), managing the technology alone was quite a feat, says Public Relations Director Sevan Melikyan, who first came up with the idea for putting the contest in cyberspace.
Several sent DVDs to Melikyan to upload, “but the vast majority managed to figure it out,” he says, “or at least get someone to figure it out for them.”
The number of contestants was far higher than anticipated, and all of the entries were quite acceptable, save one whose video was rejected for poor quality.
“There were no goof-balls,” says Melikyan. “From their videos you can see how serious and how committed these people are, and how much they love the piano. You just want to embrace them for that.”
In addition to the age requirement, participants had to be bona fide amateurs, as determined by not deriving their primary income from public performances, composing or teaching piano.
Entries started arriving in March, with April 30 as the cut-off date. Voting takes place through May 15 and winners are announced at the end of the month.
And the prize? The opportunity to compete in the Foundation’s sixth International Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in 2011. For those whose first love and avocation is the piano, working harder is the next best thing to winning a gold medal.
