The subject of prizes is beginning to annoy me.

A prize should be a reward for achievement not something that costs you money.

If you win a cup you then have to spend about £10 yourself to have your name engraved on it and then return it.

If you are asked to appear in a festival prize winners concert but have to buy tickets to attend and also pay for your own accompanist then that is a problem. The current scenario is going to cost us £70-100 for a 3 minute performance!

Do other people have this problem too? Do you sometimes have to refuse a prize for your child on cost grounds?

I don't think Claudia has ever won a prize which hasn't cost us money!

The only "prize" Emsoboe has won for music is through school. It's more of an award for progress. They get a pen and there's no option.

The girls used to win prizes at festivals for dancing. It was entirely optional to have your name engraved on the trophy or not, there was often no space as they were old. If you won with one of your solos in the end of festival competition then you would get a small trophy to keep, once they got nice silver plaques

I have been in your situation on other occassions. I must admit we are very lucky that our Piano teacher is the main accompanist and as daughter is one of his pupils he keeps his costs to a minimum.

Well, you don't have to have the name engraved, it's up to you.

At our festival we don't charge for tickets to attend the Prize Winners Concert and we even give the audience a free glass of wine/juice! The accompanist is provided.

I do know of the set-up you describe at a nearby Posh Festival...I suppose you don't have to say yes to the festival concert opportunity either if you don't want to? Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't...

Although the cups we've occasionally had at home had other people's names on, I've never been sure we were allowed to get them engraved ourselves. I'd love to do so!

My daughter has been really chuffed to play in the post-festival concerts. She doesn't get many performance opportunities so this is really welcome. Parents do have to pay for tickets but the money raised goes to charity. There's no charge for accompaniment.

If I were organising it I would employ one accompanist for everyone and split the cost or deduct it from the ticket sales. Ticket sales I don't mind, it's the total cost that is quite frightening.

Unfortunately we didn't know any of this when we entered; we know better for next time!

Is there an official accompanist you can use?

It is expensive getting trophies engraved but it's really nice to look back at the names on a trophy and see people you recognise. It's worth shopping around as engravers vary wildly in what they charge.

That is the way with music ... very few of us are in it just for the money. When taken as a proportion of the cost of lessons, instruments, music, petrol, parental time in running around and all the rest, I'm afraid it's really only a drop in the ocean. We try to think of it at it as an investment in performance experience and opportunities and also as a great leveller to see all the other talent out there. Congratulations to Claudia on all her achievements this year!

That's so true. I agree that its a lot of running around, and hassle arranging accompanists, taking time off school and work, etc.- but it's always nice to be asked to play in a winners concert. Any performance opportunity is a good opportunity. And, winning a trophy is just a nice reward for a child for all those solitary hours of practice. Its also lovely to read all the previous winners on the trophies- sometimes there are nice surprises too, such as my daughter recently found that the first winner of a violin trophy that she won recently was (Sir) Neville Marriner in the 1930's. That really made her day, I think!!

No that's the problem.

You are right, I don't really mind this, it's just all coming at once.






You are right and thank you!

To think that this time 4 years ago she was playing Three Blind Mice, it's amazing! How things have changed.




That must have been a rather large cup to fit so many names on it! How lovely.

You said at least you'd know for another occasion.

What would you plan to do, another time? Budget for the extra, or not bother to enter? If the former then presumably your priority is the music and never mind the money, and if the latter, then money clearly is rather more the issue...it's a balance we all have to find in our lives, one way and another.

I'm thinking of volunteering to organise it next time!

I have entred a few festivals in my time and find that the cost does add up. You have to pay for an accompanist on the day, a run through/rehearsal some time before the event plus the cost of getting to the event and the entry fees. It can quickly mount up, but I think it is worth the expense for the enjoyment one will get out of it.

The only time I havn't had to pay anything were in the days I was in 6th form where the annual music competiton was held at the school and the school covered the accompanists fees and provided the food at the interval free of charge. They also did not make people pay to come and watch, this helped pull in a helalthy crowd, although never completely full.

We've been to numerous festivals over 2 decades and NEVER had to pay for an accompanist...

Is this a (southern) geographic thing??

I guess accompanists are included in the entry fee for the festivals you have entered/been to.

In all the festivals I have looked at the accompanist fee is seperate to entry fee. I have only looked at events in london/Surry and neighbouring towns and cities.

I'm fairly certain you have to pay for, or take an accompanist to the ISM Festival.

It certainly does explain why the only people entering here are the children of or pupils of music teachers who play the piano (except us!)

Actually, our local music festival does not provide an official accompanist and it put me off entering son this year in woodwind section too.

Amongst the organisers I am sure that there are some piano teachers so I think that they could find someone who is able and willing to do for an afternoon's work.

While I sympathise with the cost. Who exactly do you expect to cover the cost for you?
Not a hostile question, just curious. Having worked voluntarily for years for a big festival, there is no funding for them. They might get a few costs covered by a one or two local firms advertising in the program but otherwise it is ticket sales, not to make a profit but to recoup costs.
I have sat on the desk at the door when parents have complained loudly about the £2 entry fee, usually while some poor child is scraping away at a violin at the front of the hall (yet you should see their faces if anyone dares breath while their child performs) have watched open mouthed as some barge their way in and refuse to pay, who do they think has paid for the hire of the hall, the adjudicator sitting at the front and all the behind the scenes work?Have you any idea what the adjudicators charge - it can be frightening?.
Yet these festivals are so good for young performers, the right teacher will approach it as a chance to play their best and to get constructive help from a professional with the understanding that not everyone can win. If you are lucky enough to be the winner, then it is quite a thrill to see your name added to the names on the cup but not compulsory (£10? I think you might need to shop around a bit). I know when the sums are done at the end of our festival there is a big sigh of relief if we break even.

But the thing that worries me most is The current scenario is going to cost us £70-100 for a 3 minute performance! I would hesitate to dismiss the thrill and honour felt by my son when he was asked to play in the final concert in such a way. The feelgood factor stayed with him for years and was worth every penny of the 2x parents, 2x grannies 1x accompanist fee, oh and a new shirt (!!) that emptied my pocket.
I know it hurts the finances but try and remember why we do these things both as parents and volunteers.

Now an adult, my son says when he has a tough audition or interview he draws on everything he learnt from his festival days, good adjudicators, poor ones, odd decisions, thrill of winning, learning to deal with not performing his best. It all makes standing in front of an audition panel so much easier and makes every unexpected cost incurred back in those days seem worth it.
Hope you carry on going to festivals and understand why the costs are there, it is because your child is the one benefiting.

[quote name='noisyhouse' date='Apr 26 2010, 11:36 AM' post='944727']
[quote name='Claudia's Mum' post='943644' date='Apr 22 2010, 11:23 AM']

While I sympathise with the cost. Who exactly do you expect to cover the cost for you?

[/quote]

I was hoping that the cost could be split between all the performers.

It seems odd that each child has to bring their own accompanist and has to pay them for 3 hours each when one accompanist can play for all and the cost can be shared with a little organisation.

I would even happily pay for my accompanist to accompany others if they couldn't afford it. It just seems extremely wasteful and also boring for the accompanist to have to sit through all of it when they could be accompanying.

I am going to volunteer and sort this out!

Good idea! This type of thing happens in exams as well. Stressed and flustered accompanists arrive to play with one candidate, having taken time off from their regular job when there are other candidates doing the same pieces immediately after. The accompanists obviously have to charge proportionally more for one as they're going to the bother of practising and travelling however many there are, but a little coordination would help everybody. The trouble then, though, is that everybody would have to be happy with the 'official' accompanist, and some might not be! And some are simply happier to have somebody that they're familiar with. It would only take one or two to opt out for the 'system' to crumble, as it would soon become less worthwhile for the official accompanist to do the job at all.

I should not like to have to be the accompanist being "shared" amongst many - a thankless, and onerous task, clearly already undervalued, just from the contents of this thread...they still have to do a lot of work to prepare, and that work is time, and time is money. Sadly I think even whilst parents scramble to provide their kids with all the "advantages of a rounded education" they're not valuing the skills and educational level achieved of those they pay to teach and support their kids, which to me does seem to be a bit of double thinking. I'm not necesarily picking out the OP on this one, but the comments about what it is like to run a festival did ring bells with me...

Or another thought had crossed my mind which was to take up the piano again (not having played since I was 15 or 16) and do the accompanying myself but then that would severely limit Claudia's choice of pieces ! Shame you can't bring a backing track like they do in Britain's got Talent!



Oh no, that's not what I meant at all. I felt sorry for the accompanist having to sit around waiting and thought she might prefer to be the official accompanist and actually playing. I don't begrudge him or her the fee at all! I just thought they were worth more than being paid to wait.

I'd better go now before I offend anyone else.....

Dear Claudia's Mum - Please don't run away and hide.

It is because we support the music festivals that they continue. It is just the drip, drip, drip for extra funds that is unbelievable!

Noisyhouse's quote about it all being good practice for auditions in the future makes our efforts worthwhile!

Don't run and hide, I think your idea of volunteering is brilliant. The festival I volunteer for really appreciate it and I thoroughly enjoy it. I think I get more out of it than they do out of me! It has certainly taught me how much effort (unpaid) goes into these things.

We only allow the performers to use the Official Accompanist, these lovely people are carefully chosen for their excellent piano playing skills as well as their ability to put performers at their ease and to support each piece at whatever level.

We also don't have those awful, awful, awful Set Piece classes. We do have classes like 'Any piece from Fiddle Time Joggers' though.

Claudia's Mum, Can I be the first on this thread to agree with you wholeheartedly! With several children, all playing several instruments, the costs have become truly breathtaking and frankly depressing. Noisyhouse gave an eloquent pep talk for festivals - all very true which is why we persist in taking part. But the cost has completely spoiled it for me - I now beg my children not to enter, or only to enter on piano if they are determined. We've settled on every second year which is more affordable, but it's a shame.

Completely off the topic..but can I just say how similar our forum names are, amum. I was confused when I saw this posting as I couldn't remember ever posting it and then noticed that it wasn't me after all!

Yes, and amum commented on this confusing similarity in this thread from 2007! (Yes, I have this weird memory for such trivia!)

Yes, I remain a mum's evil twin!

That's pretty much how it workd at the one local festival we have experience of. Luckily daughter's Piano teacher accompanies her. I would pay but he considers it part of the service.