The Finalists

Wednesday was a full day of performances, during which each of the six semi-finalists played a 45-minute recital. I saw many new pieces (some I liked, some not so much), and some pretty amazing playing. Last night, the finalists were announced, and they are Mike Truesdell (USA), Alexej Gerassimez (Germany), and Vassilena Serafimova (Bulgaria).

There are so many things to process when watching such a competition, and to have to choose who are the best seems nearly impossible. I got to talk with Colin Currie for awhile after the performances (before results were announced, so he couldn't say too much about that) about the day and the competition in general. It was very interesting to hear some of his thoughts, as well as perspectives from a few other competitors who were in the conversation, too.

We talked about whether it's good to have so many required pieces, or to let the players have more choice in selecting repertoire. We talked about how to choose rep for a competition. We talked about how it was judged and how to improve the next competition. It seems that the TROMP administration is very open to suggestions and feedback for the future, and that is encouraging. Don't misunderstand me, the competition has been extremely well run. In fact, we have pretty much been pampered since we arrived, other than just a few small things. But there is always room for improvement, and since TROMP wants to become even bigger and better in 2012, they're open to feedback.

Today I took a very pleasant run around some lakes and through some woods (it was sunny for the first time since we've been here), and I've just been relaxing at our host home. There's nothing going on at the music center until this evening, when Gary Burton plays with his quartet! I'm very excited to see this vibraphone legend play for the first time! Tomorrow, the jury is putting on a concert of a variety of works, from Bach to the BeeGees apparently. Should be interesting. Saturday is the final round of competition, and Sunday is some sort of huge collection of percussion (including Terry Bozzio!) to cap it all off.