Competition

Let’s ignore the fact that I haven’t blogged in four months and get on with it.

Yesterday, I participated in the Vancouver Women’s Musical Society scholarship competition. I’ve been working diligently on my three competition pieces since January, and yesterday was the big day. Leading up to it, I’d been practicing performing in front of my teacher and peers, recording myself, and doing plenty of visualization. I went into the competition with the attitude that I’d never done any festivals or competitions the whole time I’d been at UBC, so why not? It’d be a good experience whether I win or not.

Yesterday, I felt really good about my performance. I wasn’t nervous like the day before, where my hands had literally been shaking during studio class. I felt the first two pieces went exactly how I wanted them, and the third while it had a few slips was still pretty great. So, I mean, yeah, I’m a little bummed that I didn’t even get an honourable mention. But just a little. With these things, everyone does so well that basically everyone deserves to win, but everyone can’t. It doesn’t mean I’m a poor harpist or that I actually played badly yesterday just because I didn’t get the prize.

It was still a good experience, albeit an expensive one… I could have used that prize money to cover the application and taxi costs :P But I digress. I tried! And I showed that I can compete with the rest of them.