One of the Corner Brook Rotary Music Festival’s most recognized alumnus is recommending changes to the long-standing event.
David Maggs, artistic director of Gros Morne Summer Music, told Rotarians Thursday that something is missing from the festival which he graciously credits with getting him to where he is today.
It is not just the annual local festival he is identifying, it is all the events in this particular format. While, he, and many other musicians, have gone through the festival and done great things in the field, he said there are many more who were lost because of poor experiences or adjudications.
“This idea that a dozen 10-year-olds would go up on stage and play a piece, and then an expert that they had very little contact with would say who has won and lost,” Maggs said.
The competition side has its place, according to the pianist, but a step back from it and a different perspective could be had.
“It’s not because I think it is something cruel in that,” he said. “It’s that I think it is a really inaccurate way of building a relationship between the kids and the music that they are playing.”
Maggs says there is also a difference between who is better at music than who is better at performing. He is also concerned about a youth having a bad experience in their early stages of development, turning them off from continuing, and nobody knowing what the future may have held. Not everybody develops at the same rate.
“I am worried about whether that kind of model is nurturing talent or actually turning a lot of talent off,” he said. “... The kind of experience that happens in that sort of model I think is actually detrimental. It misses what might be very promising ability or interest or opportunity.”
Maggs asked Corner Brook native Jennifer Snow, a visiting guest at Rotary, for her input. The pianist and professor at UCLA did not seem to agree with his thought. She said it needs to be part of a greater discussion about a festival.
“I believe music festivals across the country are an essential aspect of music education, because they allow for the celebration of participation,” she said. “If you have a great music festival ... it is a sense of community engagement and music-making that we don’t see often.”
In the United States there are competitions, she said, not these types of festivals.
Snow, an adjudicator herself, said there are always opportunities for growth or new things added to such a festival.
“One of the most powerful aspects of a music festival is the development of an assessment tool,” she said. “That is where you get feedback from somebody who does come from away, who celebrates what you have achieved and gives you this sense of belonging to a bigger picture and bigger identity.”
Maggs told Rotarians he would be open to discussing the idea more with them.
