Editor’s note: At age 18, Christopher Richardson is a veteran of piano competitions, having competed in more than 50. His wins include: 2017 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition (ages 18 to 30) Audience Favorite Award; 2016 Music Teachers National Association National Competition Senior Division First Prize and Best Performance of Chopin Prize; and the 2012 and 2013 Russian Music International Piano Competitions (now the San Jose International Piano Competition) 1st Prize.
Here he gives his best practices from a competitor’s point of view of how to prepare for a piano competition.
by Christopher Richardson
When preparing for a piano competition, one naturally wants to be as ready as possible, but time is a limited resource. Priorities must be set. Here are a few skills I have found exceedingly useful to focus on in preparing for competitions:
- VISUALIZATION: I find that I can best express myself and tell a story with music when I can bring to mind images and ideas pertaining to each part of a piece. Often, going beyond the average performance is a matter of thought. Thinking of how a phrase sounds and how it is analogous to a place or feeling can lead to an instinctual change that captures said feeling while performing. Judges are experienced, and can see when a performer truly understands the music being played; visualization is a method that can help develop and demonstrate this understanding.
- STAGE PRESENCE: at the end of the day, musicians are creatures of the stage, and how one conducts oneself (hurray for music puns) can and will subtly influence the audience’s enjoyment of the performance. Giving a practice recital for friends and family can help ease stage frightAny feedback they give is likely to help the performer learn to diminish stage fright. Competitions are, no surprise, competitive, so one needs to display more than amazing playing when everyone plays amazingly.
- ACCURACY: this one is obvious, but I feel the need to include this to avoid giving the impression that this is unimportant by not including it. Minor slips in a performance are acceptable and even expected, but always strive to play as technically perfect as possible while retaining musicality.
- MEMORIZATION: few things in a performance are worse than having a major memory slip, and needing to restart from an earlier point. At competitions, this is nearly always an instant path to loss.
