{"id":593,"date":"2015-07-12T15:16:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T15:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harpblog.info\/?p=593"},"modified":"2015-07-12T15:16:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T15:16:39","slug":"competition-has-been-shown-to-be-useful-up-to-a-certain-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.camac-harps.com\/blog\/en\/uncategorized\/competition-has-been-shown-to-be-useful-up-to-a-certain-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Competition has been shown to be useful…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…up to a certain point, and no further”, Franklin D. Roosevelt went on, “but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.”<\/p>\n

People vary in the extent to which they relish competitions. Having been useless at them myself, I regard their winners with great admiration and awe, and I also really feel for everyone who gets thrown out. I promise you that in the fullness of time it will cease to matter, but it’s always very hard at the time.<\/p>\n

A wise course of action in the bloody aftermath of first round results is to join Germaine Lorenzini for a cigarette in the fresh air, and this was where I found myself at the last Cit\u00e9 des Arts competition. “It’s a horrible process sometimes, isn’t it”, I said, mournfully. “Of course it’s a horrible process”, said Germaine, “but we have no other solution. You can’t achieve the constructive aspects of a competition in any other way. There’s no better way to push your level, train your nerves, handle pressure. So we have to keep doing them.”<\/p>\n

\"Camac<\/a>

At our fortieth birthday festival in Ancenis, 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

And so, as we explain in the\u00a0sponsoring section of camas-harps.com<\/a>, we keep doing competitions. They are important, and to win one is an incredible achievement which should be celebrated far and wide. Nonetheless, festivals are more fun.<\/p>\n

We have just returned from the\u00a0Second Cracow Harp Days<\/a>, and they have been a perfect example of why we love festivals. Interesting, diverse, and warm, organised in friendship and with a passion for the harp and the artists who play it, the weekend was a joy from start to finish.<\/p>\n

We began with a celebration of young Polish talent: a lunchtime recital by Klara Woskowiak, co-winner of the Camac competition in London in 2014. \u00a0If you were unlucky enough to miss it, you can enjoy a film of the entire concert on\u00a0TV Zaprasza<\/a>, one of the festival’s national patrons.<\/p>\n

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