The 2012 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Bassoon Symposium was this past weekend. If you don’t know what it is, it was basically what I have been interning for since about October 2011. The Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition is a biennial bassoon competition for all women under the age of 24 from any part of the Americas. Vivaldi was known for working at a girls’ orphanage in Italy, and wrote over 30 bassoon concertos for the girls there. The idea of MQVC is to promote women bassoonists throughout the world.
For the competition, each applicant submits a recording of themselves playing the selected Vivaldi concerto and another piece written by a living, female composer. The top 10 are selected as semi-finalists and fly out to the university hosting the competition and symposium (it changes locations each year), and have to perform the selected Vivaldi concerto completely memorized, and the second piece (unmemorized). The top 5 are then selected and have two days to rehearse the Vivaldi with a string orchestra, and also perform another piece of their choice. The top winner received $9,000 this year, and second place receives $5,000, etc.
The symposium part of the conference is for people of both genders and all ages. It includes master classes, concerts, and other musical activities. Some of the world’s most famous and most renowned bassoonists come during this single weekend event to partake in this symposium.
I honestly had no clue what I was getting myself into when I accepted this internship position, but I can honestly say that I worked the hardest I have ever worked and had to encounter a lot of unexpected occurences while helping plan, organize, and lead MQVC&BS, but it was incredibly rewarding. When I graduate, my dream job is to become a concert production manager, and this was right along my alley. I can’t even begin to describe the hundreds of tasks I was responsibly for during my internship, but I can honestly say that I learned a lot and it really helped prepare me for a future involving management with musicians and events.
Although the event is over, there is still housekeeping that I have been doing with Dave Wells and Professor Kuster, who both hosted the competition and symposium this year at the University of the Pacific. And I have an interview for my third internship tomorrow with SMG Stockton Arena, so please wish me luck! I am absolutely in love with the music industry and it’s been amazing being able to get so much hands-on experience being surrounded with what I want to do for the rest of my life :)
