International Harp Competition and Festival, the Netherlands

If you take a look at Harpblog's competition pages, you will find there the International Harp Competition and Festival, The Netherlands, which will take place in Utrecht between March 23-27, 2010. And there are two particularly interesting things about this festival-competition. Firstly, it – competition, concerts, masterclasses, international jury, sponsors, the lot - is being organised by a group of music students studying at various conservatoires in the Netherlands. Secondly, they're doing it their way.  

"The idea began", Remy van Kesteren  told me, "when I asked my professor Erika Waardenburg why there was no Dutch harp competition, despite the harp scene in the Netherlands being very strong and active.  Erika reflected that perhaps it was because the Dutch harp culture tends to have other values than competition in this sense, but suggested I talk to her husband, Raoul Chenevert.  He was very helpful and said I could organise a competition myself.

So I gathered a lot of students around me, who felt positive about making this event happen. We wanted a competition and a festival because we feel the harp remains unrecognised as a true solo virtuoso instrument. Furthermore, we feel it is such a waste when we go to a competition and the jury members, who are usually some of the best harpists in the world, are only there to sit on the jury. We can learn so much from them, so why not ask them to give concerts and masterclasses as well as judge?

We also wanted a festival-competition with a nice atmosphere. One of the best things about any harp get-together is the people you meet, but at some competitions, everyone is so focused on their upcoming round that they don't even say hi at registration. We'd like to turn this into an easy and positive thing to do.  On the first evening, there'll be a big dinner and an opening concert given by jury members and young talented musicians.  Then, those who don't pass through the first round will get a masterclass the following day, so the whole event can be a learning experience – and a warm one, we're also planning a cabaret – not just a competition. 

It must be possible to retain the positive elements of competing – learning, pushing your level, and promoting solo, virtuoso harp – without the disadvantages that sometimes see you leave a competition wondering what music is for!   The festival element is really important to me; there are a lot of competitions out there that say they're also a festival, but in fact, everyone is only interested in who wins the competition. I hope non-competing harpists, other musicians and music-lovers from outside will also genuinely get a lot out of what we'll put on in Utrecht.

Just as competitions can leave you wondering why we make music, so too can they leave you asking questions about how we judge it.  The practice of all jury members giving each candidate a mark and this mark being averaged has bothered me for ages. With the averages system, candidates who play indisputably well, but without touching the audience, will score a sufficient, while a very interesting performer will get some very high marks but also some very low, leaving the candidate with a lower average. Furthermore, some jury members might range their marks between 6-8, while others range from 1-10 (who have much more influence this way).  Our first and second rounds will be done with passes, not marks.  Each jury member will vote whether a candidate should pass to the next stage or not, and the ones with the most passes will go through.  In the final, each competitor will get either 1, 2 or 3 according to the prize each jury member thinks they should get. 

It's also an excellent organising experience for me and my team – there are so many things to consider!  It takes a lot of time, but it's really interesting.  I'm looking forward to it!"

Remy also has a blog, Webstrings!