The admitted in the order of appearance:
Oi Takeshi
Mitsuhashi Keiko
Kakiuchi yuki
Dollman Luke
Martinez Daniel
Young Michael Alexander
Meyer Jeff
Mroz Anna
Me and Daniel letting some steam out after the second round. At the
background Dan's "step-mom" Luisa and my "step-mom" Marina
My comments about the second round and the choices:
The task for the second round was to first work on the orchestral
accompaniment of the two masses by Haydn and Schubert, and in the afternoon
work with the choir and orchestra both. It was obvious many people did not work
with a choir before, since in some cases the good impression I had after the
orchestra rehearsal had to make way to the harsh reality at the choir
rehearsal. One advice to all conductors: Do not sing the solo or choral parts
in the rehearsal if your voice range does not exceed a fifth! For some
rehearsals I had to leave the hall but the poor players have no chance to do
that!
The choice for the third round candidates was a bit surprising for me in the
light of the fact that this round should measure your ability to work with the
choir and improve its sound. In my opinion if a conductor does not even make
sure the choir has the right pitches before starting, he should not go on to
the next round. To the jury this seemed no be a non-issue, since many of the
people above did not care about it.
Without further speculation I would like to mention two people who in my
opinion made a good impression in the second round and whom I thus would have
loved to see go on in the competition - but who didn't: Matteo Pagliari who has
a beautiful voice and worked a lot to bring out the different nuances in the
text, and Daniel Black who is one of the few competitors to combine a lot of
power with an economy of movement in his conducting technique. I wish them luck
in the coming competitions and their careers!
