this is still uncomfortable.

It’s hard to believe that January is already past. In the mood of improvisation, I had the opportunity to work for the MENC CJME regional auditions (orchestral – full) in the district of South Plainfield all day on Saturday. Although the room I was monitoring was supposed to be containing violin sight reading, there was a lot of unintentional improvisation with random rhythms, key signatures, and notes. Because the auditions were supposed to be blind auditions it was very interesting because I was able to tally and record the scores (so that the scores were recorded both by judges and totaled twice to prevent error) and watch/interact the students before and during the auditions. The judges would be deliberating and use gender/age/grade/nationality terms when they assumed a student fit a particular category. The times when the judges were wrong about one of those was most of the time. They would be assuming a certain gender while discussing and referring to the student as “she” or “he”, when often it was the exact opposite. It was interesting to observe the stereotypes and decisions the judges made based on the blind auditions. Obviously I did not communicate about the actual students until after. The Judges asked my opinion overall and I commented on how it was interesting to hear their comments while having the opportunity to watch the students. The judging rubric did not include a category for tone quality which is something that proved to be lacking, which I will remember to include for orchestra seating, etc. auditions in the future for my private studio or public school setting. I was able to see the students whom came from certain teachers/school districts by their registration papers. It was interesting also to observe particular traits good and bad, which followed the students as a result of teaching and influence of their teachers/conductors, etc. The teachers who were judges and helpers used this meeting of many MENC members and teachers to network, which is something that I did not realize would happen and next time will be prepared with business cards. On a completely different note, there is a new Finale “notepad” designed for mac which is available for download on the website for the 2007 version. I took a class in undergrad for finale but do not own it myself on my home computer. I am curious what other students reactions with this program are. The online reviews are not quite helpful, perhaps more detailed ones will be posted in the future. Might review it after I have more time to try the program out.