My First Competition

December 11, 2007 at 6:07 pm · Filed under My Music, my passions and tagged: Beethoven, juries, piano competitions

When I was 14, my piano teacher encouraged me to enter a local piano competition. First Prize was a performance with the community orchestra. None of us (family members included) thought I had a snowball-in-San-Antonio’s chance of winning, given that the age limit for the competition was 25 – and I was all of 15. So, given the college-age competitors, I decided to work up the first movement of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. By the time the day of the competition rolled around, I was nervous…but determined to play well regardless.

After my performance, I went outside with a friend to blow off steam while the jury made their deliberations. We got caught up in looking at storefront decorations (remember those?) so we lost track of time. Next thing I know, my father is walking briskly in my direction. I steeled myself to get chastized for for disappearing! But all he said was “Contestant #3 won.”

I thought for a second, “Ummmm, wait a minute, I’m Contestant #3!”

The rest, as they say, is history…

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