Unease about Young Concert Artists winners
NewsThere is considerable disquiet about three of the five artists who were chosen at the weekend for the YCA three-year career program.
The five are:
James Baik, cello
Oliver Neubauer, violin
Benett Tsai, cello
Michael Yeung, percussion
Ziggy & Miles, guitar duo
James Baik and Benett Tsai are both students of juror Cliver Greensmith.
Oliver Neubauer is reported to be the nephew of juror Anne-Marie McDermott.
These relationships were not disclosed.
Can the YCA awards be trusted?
Bribery, extortion, nepotism, blackmail. These are every day happenings of every single music competition on this planet.
Music is too subjective to be marked fairly, as anyone can argue anything if they wanted to.
Best put a ban on competitions altogether. We don’t need any more meaningless first prize winners. There is no shortage of these.
Let’s remember the old Broadway adage: “No matter who you know or how you got there – nobody can pull for you between 8pm and 11pm.”
Not unfamiliar behavior from McDermott, as widely rumored. The 2019 Cliburn winner was reportedly playing 2-piano recitals with her before entering the competition, and this was politely scrubbed from his bio when she was on the jury. If you don’t have connections or study with these leeches, you’re wasting your time.
I do not dispute that corruption is a longstanding issue at competitions, but making unsourced accusations without regard for fact-checking will do nothing to combat the problem. The last two Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions were held in 2017 and 2022. In 2019, the Cliburn Junior Competition was held, but Anne-Marie McDermott was not on the jury that year:
https://cliburn.org/2019-junior-competition-jury/
Highly doubtful that 1 vote from McDermott got the Cliburn winner the 1st prize.
I think you answered your own question correctly.
If true, a juror not disclosing ANY form of relationship with a competitor is either stupidity or scheming… which is it? Both juror and the competitor should be removed / disqualified.
The answer to your question, Norman, is no. What a sham(e).
E la nave va…
Simple enough…
All judges should sign a conflict of interest declaration before being selected. No connection that could be construed as a conflict should be allowed.
Absent that, the results mean nothing
Competitions are for horses, not artists—-Bela Bartol
Yes.
And Zankel Hall has what exactly to do with this?
Nothing even remotely surprising, nothing different from what’s going on in competitions. They need to become irrelevant.
They are irrelevant, after a year, most of the time.
It looks like cheating, but it may be completely honest. If I were on a jury, I would even throw my own mother out after the first round if she played out of tune.
That is true. The two cellists might totally have deserved to win. It’s unprecedented that two cellists were chosen in one year, I think. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Those who don’t deserve a career won’t have one no matter what competitions they win. It’s only unfair for the ones who were passed over who actually deserved it. But as talent is hard to hide, those who deserve it will have their chance, sometime. I hope.
I think you have an extremely naive view of how the classical music industry works.
Perhaps…but I like to believe those who truly deserve will eventually come to light. Maybe not to superstardom, but at least given a good sustainable career.
No female winners?
what a bulls**t competition.