[Balloon-makers] Sammi's Music Competition

Tue Dec 11 07:45:18 CST 2007

I wanted to update all of you on Sammi's music competition.  Unfortunately,
yesterday afternoon, we found out that Sammi was not selected as a finalist
to compete on New Year's Eve.  As I wrote to some of you earlier, it was my
understanding that the top twelve vote-getters would perform before the
judges to qualify for the finals on New Year's Eve.  This was not the case.
At the end of last week, we received an e-mail from the contest manager
telling us that the online voting would bear no weight in the selection of
the finalists (because of your incredible support, Sammi garnered the most
votes out of all 52 contestants).  In that e-mail, the contest manager told
us that the judges would view the videos and decide who the finalists would
be.  As it turns out, each judge voted on a scale of one to ten for each
performer, and the scores were tallied and the performers with the top 16
scores were selected for the finals.  Out of all the judges, there was only
one who was knowledgeable about classical music.  That judge, by the way,
gave Sammi a score of 9.5, which contributed to her overall ranking of 17
out of 52, just one position shy of making the finals.  In retrospect, given
the way this was judged, I can't say I'm terribly surprised at the outcome,
although Lori, Sammi and I are still disappointed.  Classical music is a
tough nut when it goes up against popular music.  It just can't compare to
pop in the general market, which is why classical CD sales are a mere blip
on the charts of music sold.  As one of you said in your response to my
original announcement, "Sammi's good, very good, and I think deserves to be
first in terms of talent, but really there is little chance for a classical
violinist, however good, to beat someone wailing into a microphone."  But we
three know that if nothing's ventured, nothing will be gained, so it was
well worth trying.

I must tell you, though, that the outpouring of support from all of you was
very, very gratifying and encouraging.  We received e-mails from literally
all over the world, with extremely kind comments about Sammi's playing.
Lori and I are fortunate to be able to hear Sammi's beautiful playing every
day, but we had no idea it would have the impact it had on many of you.  We
greatly appreciate your kindness and support for our little girl.

Sammi does have some other very exciting musical opportunities coming up
soon.  Some of you know that she is the principal second violinist in the
Vermont Youth Philharmonia, and she will be playing in the Vermont Youth
Orchestra Association's annual "Orchestrapalooza" on Sunday afternoon in
Burlington's beautiful Flynn Theater.  Four of the VYOA orchestras and the
VYO Chorus perform as part of Orchestrapalooza, and these kids are good
(visit http://www.vyo.org/ for details)!  Some of you also know that Sammi
has another musical outlet in jazz.  She plays the tenor saxophone in her
school's jazz band, and recently had the wonderful opportunity of playing
soprano sax in a fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Association with local jazz
sensation Jenni Johnson and her band.  In any event, Sammi recently
auditioned for her school district's band and earned a position as first
tenor sax (she scored a 59 out of 60 in her audition, and both her amazing
band teacher at Charlotte Central and her wonderful private sax teacher tell
us that that's the highest score they've ever seen).  So Sammi will be
playing in the Champlain Valley District Music Festival on February 2nd, and
is very much looking forward to that.

As well, we have yet to hear from the BFA Conference organizers, but, if
invited, Sammi would love to play for those of you who will be attending
(and we're still very touched by those who have offered to sponsor Sammi in
that regard).

So, once again, thank you all very, very much for supporting Sammi.  Your
many kind and warm comments mean a lot to the three of us.

Happy holidays!

David

P.S.  Sammi will compete again in next year's First Night music competition,
so all comers beware!

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