Music festival works thus

AFTER the publication of some letters commenting on the auditions of the College of the Arts (COTA) for our annual music festival, we would hereby like to clarify the concerns of (probably misinformed) letter writers. The music festival is an annual College of the Arts’ event which will celebrate its 21st hosting this year. It takes place in the National Theatre of Namibia, and a symphony orchestra, compiled of local and invited orchestral players, will be used to accompany the various soloists.

This event is aimed at establishing a showcase opportunity for progressive and committed work done by the students of the College of the Arts, as well as giving the lecturers the opportunity of savouring and enjoying colleagues’ endeavours on an advanced level. It is important to note that this event is NOT a national event, but purely a COTA production. Neither is it a competition to select an overall winner. No prizes or scholarships are awarded.

The auditions serve to extract the best possible players and items to make up a well-balanced and enjoyable programme for the public, which as audience, will be presented with a programme of the highest musical and technical standard that could be found amongst the entries. The items that are presented during the auditions are not only evaluated for their technical and musical level of excellence, but also for the suitability to be accompanied by a symphony orchestra and presented on stage in a large theatre.

One of the existing criteria is that the soloist must perform the work strictly according to the prescriptions of the composer, so that, when accompanied by the orchestra, the same terms of reference pertaining to tempo, rhythm and melodic notation can be followed. This will ensure that the soloist will be able to perform his/her item with ease and the conductor could follow the score as it is composed.

Due to the fact that previous lecturers and students of the College of the Arts have started their own music schools, it has been endeavoured to keep strong ties with these colleagues by inviting them to enter suitable students for the annual auditions. It is a recognized fact that private music schools do not have the financial and human resource capacity to host an event of this scale.

Funding for an event of this scale is partially done by the Bank Windhoek Smart Partnership, the Franco Namibian Cultural Centre and to a large extent, the annual budget of the College of the Arts’ ministerial budget. Smaller donations are also sought from embassies and private concerns. For the 2008 auditions 41 entries have been received. To establish a program of 70 minutes playing time, 16 entries could be accommodated, which will involve 19 participants to this year’s event. Five of the students selected for the final concert are students from outside the College of the Arts.

Throughout the years many various models have been tried to compile a satisfactory selecting panel, ranging from outside persons (which could only be individuals that are not practicing teachers/musicians, otherwise their students could not enter), representatives of the various departments of the College (whose students then could also not enter), open to the public (which resulted in disturbing behaviour from the visitors’ side) to the last model in 2007 and 2008, where a large group of COTA lecturers were involved.

The 2007 auditions, where a similar group of lecturers served on the panel, were conducted without any complaints from parents, teachers or students afterwards, and on this ground it has been decided to repeat the procedure for 2008. Ten members of the panel submitted a mark for each item, and the normal curve would then act that the extremeties would be neutralised, with the aggregate emerging as being the most accurate and representative mark obtained.

A number of lecturers accompanied their own students for the orchestral accompaniment, and were automatically not able to vote for their own student, being involved in the combined performance. (The “parent”, to whom some letter writers refer, was one of the two official accompanists, and was not involved in the voting process.) As to qualifications of the panel members: the staff members of the College of the Arts are appointed by the Public Service Commission, after the candidate has been shortlisted and interviewed according to criteria set for the specific position.

They are selected on their level of expertise, knowledge and skills, which will be necessary to perform their work effectively. During a previous staff meeting the above concerns have been discussed and proposals for further improvement of the auditioning structure were accepted. Criteria for selecting will be published on the future enrolment forms to ensure transparency. Lecturing staff will make up the panel, but may not vote for their own student.

Outside teachers who enter their students, will be invited to serve as voting member of the panel, and will also refrain from voting for their own student. The standard phrase, namely “the panel’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into” will remain. In conclusion the College of the Arts would like to state that we as an institution is open for any discussion and clarification of any problem in the regard of auditions.

The public is kindly invited to take up matters of concern with the institution itself. We would welcome any constructive ideas to streamline our processes and produce effective results. We strongly suggest that cooperation and consultation is a strong and constructive method to achieve the desired outcome for any concern, and simultaneously ensure that the aims of arts education will be served and strengthened. Herewith we trust that all concerns have been clarified and that the matter has thus been concluded satisfactorily.