AAF-2024

Jury Rules & Recommendations Participants always wish to understand what’s happening and how the jury arrives at the 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 Bajić Competition in Novi Sad, the audience is allowed to enter the jury room, so that they can witness the procedures. In Marbella (Spain), the jury deliberations are even webcast! In Salzburg, an innovative competition was launched in 2019, where three independent jury panels heard the same contestants, but gave different results! Students of jury members There is always much discussion about the problem of jury members having their own students in the same competition. At major competitions, 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 is also the effect on the other jury members, which they may not be fully aware of, but which undoubtedly plays 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. This may be true for competitions for the youth, but such remark is poor at major competitions and not nice towards the other contestants. With the wide diffusion of all information about competitions on the internet (and by AAF), pianists from all over the world can know about 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, which may damage the image and reputation of this jury member and the competition. It would be much better to avoid such unpleasant situations altogether and to stipulate that students of jury members may not take part in the same event. The table on the next page shows that there are now quite a few competitions where students of jury members are not allowed to take part. [NB: this list is only indicative and not exhaustive.] Alink-Argerich Foundation 2024