AAF-catalogue-2017

Jury Rules & Recommendations
Participants always wish to understand what’s happening and how the jury arrives at
certain decisions. It is therefore much appreciated when there is transparency at
competitions.
Voting procedures
Most competitions have a set of rules for the jury describing the voting procedures. For
major competitions, this can be an elaborate set of articles, describing each eventuality.
Organisers of smaller competitions may have written down a few guidelines, and it may
even happen that the procedures are still discussed and changed at the start of the
competition. At the more respectable competitions, the voting procedures are clearly
described and published, together with the participation conditions.
People also wonder about the results of preselections. Many pianists apply for major
competitions and only a limited number of contestants can be accepted. Excellent
performers have sometimes bad luck. To enhance transparency, the preselection for the
Pozzoli Competition in Seregno (2015) was open for public. At the Isidor Bajic
Competition in Novi Sad, the audience is allowed to enter the jury room, so that they can
witness the procedures.
Students of jury members
There is always much discussion about the problem of jury members bringing their own
students to the same competition. This should better be avoided. At most competitions,
there is the rule that jury members may not vote over their own students. This sounds
good, but it also introduces other complications, and there are still the effects on the other
jury members, which they may not be aware of, but which unmistakingly play a role and
can have some influence.
Some organisers argue that the level at their competition is so high, thanks to the fact that
the jury members bring their best students. Such a remark is poor and not nice towards the
other contestants. It does not show much understanding of the problem. With the wide
diffusion of all information about competitions, on the internet (and by AAF), pianists
from all over the world can know about the competitions, and there are literally thousands
of excellent young musicians, who perform at high level and who fully deserve to take
part and should also have a fair chance of winning a prize.
One should be realistic: if it happens that a student of a jury member wins the competition
– whether justified or not – it may provoke all kinds of rumours.
It would be much better to avoid such unpleasant situations altogether and to stipulate that
students of jury members may not take part.
84 | Piano Competitions Worldwide 2017