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January 12, 2008 SUBJECT: BLAND
MUSIC CONTEST The Annandale Lions
Club is pleased to announce its annual BLAND
MEMORIAL MUSIC COMPETITION, to take place on Tuesday Evening, This year, instead of
mailing out registration forms and letters, I am using the Internet and
its facilities. I plan to place hard copies of the application, this
letter, and the Contest Rules at the George Mason Library
in First and second place
prizes will be awarded to winners in both Vocal and Instrumental
categories. Every
contestant will be given an attractive, framing-quality certificate of
participation. The two
finalists in our contest will advance to the Regional Runoff to be held
in March, and winners there will advance to the District 24-A Bland
Contest in April. District
finalists go on to the Lions of Virginia State Finals in May, to compete
for scholarship money at a number of levels, as described on the
registration form. Applications sent
regular mail must be in my hands not later than February 14 and must
bear a postmark. Your
application requires the approval of your music mentor; your written
signature is not required as long as your teacher okays your
participating in the Bland Contest.
This
person could be a choral director, minister of music, band director, or
in any case an adult with appropriate credentials that can recommend the
applicant. If you prefer e-mailing the completed application instead of
by standard surface mail, my address is below. We hope Music Teachers
will encourage one or more of their students to apply to a Bland Music
contest-ours, or that sponsored by any Club in Lions District 24-A.
We feel the Annandale Contest provides an excellent opportunity for a
young musician to perform before an appreciative and supportive audience
of 60 to 75 Lions, guests, parents, music teachers, neighbors, and
friends of music. They gain valuable competition experience, and
receive pointers from our four adjudicators. Contestants may wear whatever apparel they feel comfortable.
As each contestant goes forward to perform, he/she will be asked
to introduce himself/herself, the composition title, his/her accompanist
(if appropriate), and the composer.
Feel free to add any further information about the composition
that would interest the audience. Families
and friends of contestants are invited to attend, as are music teachers,
choral and band directors, or anyone in the role of music advisor. You probably realize
that the Annandale Lions’ Bland Contest is always on a school night.
Due to that, there is a practical limit to the number of contestants we
can accommodate. You also know that Bland Contests are actually two
competitions (Vocal and Instrumental). Since we have two judges for each
category, it would be ideal to rotate the contest elements- for example,
while a vocalist is performing, the instrumental judges will be
finalizing their scoring sheets from the previous performance with
helpful comments, thus keeping the events moving.
We feel that these comments are an important part of our
competition, allowing the young musicians to benefit from the expertise
of professional instructors in receiving free help in the development of
their musical skills. Unfortunately, in the past two years we struggled
with a considerable imbalance of too many instrumentals, so that we
could not rotate without having several back-to-back instrumentals. That
caused us to ask the judges to save time by NOT writing in the
“comments” section of the scoring sheets, but just quickly decide on
the numerical scores and move on, so that we would end the Evening at a
reasonable hour. Should additional
information be required, I can often be reached at 703-941-3631, or a
message may be left for my response. Gene Boucher, Contest
Chairman |
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Lions Club of Annandale
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