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My heart is not in the right place but I'm going to vent anyway...


Susan in TN
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A few months ago I approached a very well-respected acquaintance to ask his opinion about a couple of summer music festivals that ds was planning to apply to - the person had attended one several times and I assumed he'd know about the other, too.

 

So upon asking, he said, "oh, you mean the, uh, (pause and look to the side) bass player? Hmmm, they are very tough to get into, very competitive. You might want to have him look into ....... music camp also. They're usually still looking for more players at the end of the school year."

 

I'll add that this person (a professional musician) had only heard ds play once to my knowledge, and that was in a small chamber group about a year ago. Not really much of a chance for him to assess ds's playing ability one way or the other.

 

I could tell that in his (pause) he had been about to say "little", and not in a complementary way. Ds is a foot taller than this guy. I chose to overlook his weird rudeness (and my sudden change in opinion of his character) and listened to his description of the camps which he said were both excellent and VERY selective.

 

So I now send him a most undignified cyber pppppffffzzthth - as of today ds has been accepted into BOTH music festivals. Little Indeed! (And I have a little too much secret joy at the fact that word will eventually get around to him.)

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this is why it is so much more satisfying to not get in someone's face when they are clueless at best. imagine the joy you will feel should you encounter this man again and he asks if your son was admitted to one of the camps, and you can cheerfully tell him he was admitted to both.

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Personally, I'd drop him a note thanking him for the camp information and tell him ds was accepted in both and is looking forward to attending.

 

Ooo ... yes this! So tempting!

 

Seriously, how hard is it to be encouraging to a young and enthusiastic musician? :glare: Even if you don't get into a program, auditioning in itself is a learning process. My piano kid has done a fair number of auditions for things and I silently celebrate the losses too because I think he learns quite a bit from those experiences as well.

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Ooo ... yes this! So tempting!

 

Seriously, how hard is it to be encouraging to a young and enthusiastic musician? :glare: Even if you don't get into a program, auditioning in itself is a learning process. My piano kid has done a fair number of auditions for things and I silently celebrate the losses too because I think he learns quite a bit from those experiences as well.

 

Yes! :iagree:

That's the sweetest "in your face". :laugh:

 

Some people are just jealous and/or negative.

 

Congrats!

 

The stupidest thing is that this guy is a college professor and plays in a couple of professional symphonies. You would think he'd have a better handle on how to encourage young musicians without giving "false hope". He had no reason to be condescending, and certainly not jealous of a high school student.
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Send him a note asking which he recommends? I did that with DS's choir teacher, who was constantly selecting her favorites and having them do solos etc. and going on about them. DS was later accepted to four world-renowned choirs. I sent the teacher a sweet email asking which of the four she recommend he accept. Oddly enough I never heard back. The least I would have expected was for her know enough about her job to realize that DS had real talent. Oh well, her loss!

Congrats on your DS and on your confidence in his ability!

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