I entered my first competition at the Conservatoire, I know that I shouldn’t expect to place in every competition I enter but competition performance is a yardstick for me to measure my progress and like most people I like to win.
There was strong competition with second year students in the running order but I quite like pitting myself against people that are slightly above my current level. But like Wigan FC (the bottom of the league club that won the FA Cup) you can’t go in expecting to lose can you? I wouldn’t like to start avoiding contests where winning seems unlikely from the outset.
I had a lovely compliment from the Acting Head of Voice who hadn’t heard me sing before, I had a fabulous time performing, and it was probably my wisest move to enter a competition the week before my final end of year singing examination to help me to work out the wrinkles from my performance, which is what I’ve been working on most of the weekend.
I also appreciate the excellent feedback I got from the judge which will help me to improve and refine my skills and knowledge and that’s what I’m looking for, that and preferably coming first 😉 I feel pleased that she wrote “obvious hard work going on and some great potential”. I also gained confidence in the areas I performed well in.
I love the excitement of a competition, everything from learning and perfecting the songs to filing my finger nails and putting flowers in my hair – another no – no apparently (did you know it’s unlucky to wear flowers in your hair on the Opera stage? Even fake ones! ) I thought maybe it is because real ones could give someone with hay fever a problem.
That’s it! Light bulb moment – it was wearing those flowers that did it. ;-0