Winners and ...losers

While on 5 June the young pianist Evelina Puzaite from Lithuania played in the Wigmore Hall, London, for the 5th time (quite an achievement, but she's the winner of the 2006 Abstract Securities Landor Competition) and has brought out her debut CD, on the other side of the Atlantic there's the sound of sour grapes being sucked.

It seems someone is not happy with the results of the Primrose competition, possibly the highest level viola competition in the US. Our own Ula Ulijona won a prize there a few years ago. The problem is that one of the jury members, Bruno Pasquier, had his son also competing in the competition, and the young man got as far as the semi-finals. Someone, who is very anonymous, is not happy with this, and shows it here, on an anonymous website. Those who have listened to the young Pasquier, though, think that he is quite good really. One assumes that the poster of this website did, er, not make it.

To be honest, though, it does seem a bit of a misjudgement to have your son in a competition in which you are in a jury. Even if you abstain, might it not influence other jury members? I would not do it (nor am I likely to), but then again, if you think he's good at what he does, and it's the most prestigious competition in the country, what choice do you have.

Let's not start talking about teachers on juries and their pupils in competitions. Really, let's not......