Only joking! Thought the title might get people looking!

Seriously though, I have been asked to adjudicate a school music festival at the end of March, and it will be all-inclusive, i.e. all instruments against each other, not separately as in a piano class/ woodwind class etc.

Anyone have any experience of doing this, and any tips? I'm kind of worried that obvious winners might not stand out especially - what would I do then??? And I'm worried about judging instruments against each other. My only experience of judging festivals before was the piano classes in a local festival, and then it was much easier as everyone was at least on the same instrument........

Hehe, I was thinking of doing something like that. That sounds tough, I always think it's unfair judging instruments against each other because some instruments are easier to sound professional, some look arkward to perform, etc. Anyone noticed how many Young Musicians of the Year have been string players?

No particular experience, but for what its worth:

Judge the performance. I've watched Young Musician of the year, and instantly know who is going to win that class. Most times I'm right.

How does the entrant communicate the intentions of the composer to you?
Do you feel drawn to the performance.

Write yourself a list of criteria that you are going to use as the basis of your assessment and stick to it.

You will probably know when you hear the winner.

Are you being asked to give written feedback? That's possibly a tricky area, but as you will have seen here many entrants are very keen to receive guidance on areas to improve.

At least you're not seeing pink elephants

No, seriously, I have been an adjudicator (as guest and as chief) for the ICMA Music Festivals at Stratford - o-A.

I found that the winners are those that will stand out to you immediately, not ONLY their musicianship bu their "prescence" on the stage, their entry, their posture, their exit.
I have had to judge organ against piano, piano against saxophone.
I have always had to go and consider my verdict with written appraisals for ALL entrants.
Are you one of a panel, or are you the lone "adjudicator"?

Whatever, it's good fun

You will need a quick way to make notes on each performer as you listen. It is almost essential to have a copy of the piece being played or sung in front of you too. I always mark on the following points and give each section a mark out of 20. Add the totals and you get the winner.
1 Accuracy of performance.
2 Stage presence.
3 Quality and suitability of choice.
4 Technique and musicallity.
An enjoyable performance may not be an accurate one. and so not a winning one. In a competition I look for a competent rendition of a piece within the player's ability. I do not give extra credit for a competitor who attempts a too difficult piece and makes a "reasonably go of it". I prefer to hear and see a pollished performance without slips. Good luck with it all. I am sure that it will be fun.

I've been invited not to judge of course to concerto competitions and yes, the above, was pretty much what they were looking for -
accuracy,
presence,
suitability of choice,
technique and
musicality.

Surprisingly, I found that judges are highly critical of wrong choice - choosing/playing a hard piece reasonably as opposed to playing an easy piece very well. This criticism didn't seem fair since I wouldn't think of a nervous kid as a show-off. Rather, it is the teacher's choice more than a pupil's, surely? And, if the pupil had chosen wrongly, then it'd have been the teacher's responsibility to veto it?

love the title!!
never done anything like this before, but i think the suggestion of choosing the criteria before and then trying to mark everyone fairly and not being influenced to change the criteria would be the best bet.
and then keep your fingers crossed that someone stands out a long way!

A lot of good advice here. Sometimes it helps thinking about who plays most effortlessly as opposed to those who struggle to play their best. It also helps by asking yourself 'Would I pay to watch this person play?'.

I've got no particular experience, but in my opinion (others with more experience may disagree) you should work out what you think is "good" for each instrument you're likely to come across. For example, accuracy is likely to be a lot better on a piano than a French Horn (I know I'm more likely to miss notes on the Horn and one of my co-Horns has accuracy problems in solos especially after he's been playing the whole piece). I mean, Grade 8 standard for different instruments is different because of their different capabilities so you might want to take this into consideration - 90% accuracy for any brass player is probably around as good as 98% for a pianist.

Other than that, you obviously want tone and expression, reasonable competence and above all a performance - and there's a lot of good advice here already.

Now, where's that heffalump?

Thanks for all your replies everyone!

I guess what I'm most worried about is the kind of issues Firebird was mentioning - i.e. the relative technical difficulties of each instrument, like brass splitting notes, stringplayers being out of tune, clarinets squeaking, flutes being overbreathy etc. and what is 'acceptable' for what level, if that makes sense.

But there are a lot of helpful comments here so I shall go away and mull over them....... thanks!

Actually, on second thoughts the heffalump may have been a woozle afterall.........