There should not be competition in music.
I'm fundamentally opposed to all music competitions. They foster the worst tendencies in the profession. Let me give you an example.
A young pianist of my acquaintance, from Georgia, was participating in a Piano Competition in Germany, last year. The competition was poorly organised, and there was nowhere for the competitors to get anything to eat at the venue - so they went across the road to a supermarket. Some other competitors (from a developed Asian country which had better go nameless) saw the Georgian competitor walking around the supermarket. She had played superbly well in the first round - so they decided to take action. They reported to the Store Detective that the Georgian girl was a shoplifter - they claimed to have seen her putting groceries into her bag. The Store Detective thanked the
Japanese Asian girls for their kind help, and immediately arrested the Georgian competitor. Police were called. Nothing was found in her bags, and after unnecessarily long questioning she was released - although no apology was offered. But she had missed her performance time for the afternoon rounds, and was disqualified unconditionally, and additionally marked that she had shown "contempt" for the competition's jury (by wasting their time). The supermarket refused to provide a letter explaining what had happened.
