Fatster, thanks for your link to Van Cliburn yesterday. What a remarkable musician and human being.

The next Van Cliburn International Piano Competition begins May 24th and will host about 30 pianists selected from among 132 applicants. These big competitions are held every four years. Each is a bit longer than two weeks, and a feast for any piano lover.

I think these competitions are more of a music festival than a competition, though, and have happily evolved that way. There is also an amateur competition held at the two year interim point between the big ones. More info is at:

http://www.cliburn.org

It’s unfortunate Cliburn, himself, passed so soon. He will be missed.

Good evening, fatster, I see the airplanes are still flying (knock on wood).

Scalia’s comment was certainly outrageous, and good for John Lewis. However, another aspect is that it is giving Obama supporters a chance to rave beyond reason about his appointees Sotomayor and Kagan because they upset normal SCOTU decorum a bit in his face.

Thus in today’s WaPo Msnbc Contributor trumpets: “you [Scalia] may have the votes, but you’re going to have a fight.” But if Ginsburg is the next to retire, and in the next four years, both of which seem likely, O is surely going to pick someone to her right to keep the Senate Republicans from blocking the appointment, maybe even someone who will join the conservative majority.

Other than that I offer the wisdom of Jay Leno: the designation “Pontiff Emeritus” means that Benedict will no longer talk directly to God; he’ll just follow Him on Twitter.

You’re more than welcome, maa8722, and I heartily concur with your comments. Many thnx.

“Benedict will no longer talk directly to God; he’ll just follow Him on Twitter.”

Oh, that’s wonderful, E. F. Beall. I’ll be in stitches for a while over that. LOL.

I think these competitions are more of a music festival than a competition, though, and have happily evolved that way.

Let me respond to that, with direct knowledge of past Van Cliburn winners. I studied with one, Stephen DeGroote 1977 Van Cliburn 1st prize winner.

So what happens is, the winners get a certain exposure, and generally secure teaching positions, as well as concertizing. This is very important, as the winners are young, at first, but then continue to age and perfect their craft, both by teaching and continuing to concertize, and learning where they really want to be.

So, I assure you the competition is intense, and is real, as the combined faculties of the planet produce many many Masters level students, but very few sinecures.

Which is where I met and studied with DeGroote; he came to ASU in 1982 after the 4 years of concerts and 1 record deal which comes with the 1st prize.

Stephen has long since passed away, but later prize winners are now nicely aging into teaching and re-emerging as concertizers, like Andre-Michel Schub, both championing new music, and new students.

So while it’s a relatively happy business, making music, especially classical piano/violin/opera, it is incredibly intense as regards competitiveness.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, courtesy of Ben Bernanke:

Investors seeking profits overpay for foreclosures in California

The bottom line here is that investors are willing to overpay for underpriced properties, particularly when Fannie Mae is hot to unload the homes. Colony Capital can access hundred of millions of dollars at low interest rates, so paying 12 percent over appraised values for the auctioned properties isn’t a problem if the money is cheap and a tight rental market promises rents that exceed mortgages.

I know nothing about the big musical competitions like the Cliburn, but I volunteer (meaning things like escorting the entrants from the rehearsal room to the performance hall) for one of the smaller ones, the Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, held every three years in Washington, DC. As this summary of the 2012 event by WaPo’s chief music critic Anne Midgette brings out, such competitions are serious matters as you say, and some of the winners go on to big things.

(I got to meet Pamela Frank, whose discography includes one of the better sets of the Beethoven violin-piano sonatas with her father Claude, at the 2009 event because she was a judge. It was a thrill.)

That’s interesting, allan. As sort of a reference point, the median price for a home in CA in Jan 2013 was $290,000. Colony Capital apparently paid an average of $181,443 (using the numbers at your link). And here’s another good one: the difference between average rent $718/mo and average mortgage payment $481/month.

It was just a few months ago, while DDay was still around, that we were discussing the stampede of investors to grab up the property to rent. And just look at what they’ll make on that: $718/mo x 970 homes = $696,460/mo.

Jeebus.

Many thanks.

Thanks so much for that insider’s view, Kelly Canfield. Enriches our appreciation of these wonderful opportunities–of which there should be many, many more–for young musicians.

And if you have the stomach for it:
a tongue-bathing farewell “interview” of Lanny Breuer
as he steps down from cashes in on his years at DOJ.

You nailed it! I saw that, took a quick look, and book-marked it to read for tomorrow’s Roundup–I just couldn’t stomach it today. Thnx so much for taking that off my to-do list, allan. Whew!

ubetchaiam left the link to this delightful story right at the end of last night’s Roundup. I’m bringing it forward so everyone can enjoy.

Aloha, fatster…! Another excellent job…! I mentioned the $60 Million in Syrian ‘Aid’ in my latest MENA Mashup…! I’d finally gotten off my duff…! ;-)

Result: “policies most favorable to the majority were those offered by the progressive wing of the Democratic caucus.

*sigh* Hello…?

Aloha, CTuttle. Thanks for letting us know about your new post.

@14–Yep. Ditto the sigh. Put a label on it, and . . .

Yes, there is competition, so it’s not for everyone. There are medals, prize money, etc., which are the definition of competition. Still, the Cliburn Competition and others have evolved as I pointed out. I think many of the competitors enter with little expectation of a medal or money, but want to be seen and heard nonetheless.

There is much more latitude nowadays for Cliburn competitors to tailor their repertoire as they want. Most of the limitations which remain are for practical reasons — e.g., there are still only the same four piano quintets to choose from. But the solo repertiore now is pretty much whatever the competitor wants to play, as long as the commissioned work is included in the semi-finals. So my observation about the “festival” venue is valid, I’d maintain. It’s not a cookie cutter approach anymore.

Some of the most interesting competitors didn’t win medals, or really need to for their careers, eg., Andrew Russo and Frederick Chiu. The exposure, which every one of them gets, may be most important. The media, presenters, etc., are present and hear the pianists as well as what’s said by the jurors. A prize may not impress all the time. Quirkiness sometimes does impress, even if it eliminated someone before the finals.

I have thought the silver medalists were often more interesting than the gold — Toradze far more than De Groote, by the way. And that 1977 competition was the most controversial of all from 1962 to today. The medalists going into teaching, which you mentioned, are somewhat of a disappointment I think, but it’s their choice.

Another aspect of competition, which people don’t think a lot about, is the jurors’ scoring process. The Cliburn’s process has changed radically since 2001. There is a software based system now which is fairer, less prone to manipulation by any juror, and which has been adopted by other piano competitions as well.

So I’d say most of the negative connotations about piano “competitions” have been mitigated at the Cliburn, or at least addressed. They’ll never be eliminated entirely at all piano competitions worldwide (there are a lot of them besides the Cliburn).

Re: my #16 is Re: #5 Kelly Canfield

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10681023
Scooter Libby can vote again. You all remember Scooter don’t you?

LOL. Thanks ever so much, AZ Matt.

It brought back old memories.

Didn’t it ever, AZ Matt! That cast of characters during the Bush-Cheney Error was sumpthin’ else again. And it went on for 8 long years.

Amazing that they found a rug large enough to sweep so much under, isn’t it?

I wonder how many have imagined science catching up to extinct species, and being able to reconstruct some of them? Well, it seems it will happen.

I had expected and hoped for such, but skeptical it could happen in my own lifetime.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/28/marin-environmentalist-says-we-are-learning-to-reverse-extinction/

That link about the accidental scientific discovery is a must see. I bumped into that about a month ago and I can’t wrap my head around all the possibilities. The production cost has been lowered for creating flat graphine by so much. It’ll find its way into more applications than I can think about.

Two angry old men, shouting at clouds.

comments at that, are funny…

“Maybe they could recreate moral and ethical leaders instead.”

replied to with

“I’ll give you a thumbs up for that, however, I’m pretty sure there’s a limit to science.”