Originally Posted by neuhausen

If the styles of participants are that recognizable to some of the judges, then I opt that we go outside the forum and find truly objective judges who are not familiar with the personalities here. I think this could be in the best interests of the entire competition. That said, as I mentioned before, I don't think everyone on this site could recognize the pieces or styles of all those who entered the competition. Even if they could, it would only bring positive discrimination on the part of those mentioned. Given that one of its main objectives is to help composers "go public with their music" I think having some experienced conductors on the panel (as well as orchestral musicians) would be a tremendous advantage as it may even bring about a real performance of the entries. As far as discrimination is concerned, I don't think that would be a problem. There are so many aspects that need to be considered in the decision: the professionalism of the score, the writing for the various instruments of the orchestra, the pacing of the piece itself, just to name a few areas that need to be considered. The bottom line is this: to make this a truly fair and worthwhile competition it needs to be better organized and organized by persons who are not entered in it as competitors. The pieces really ought to be anonymous entries. Obviously we could make this a simple competition and just have this be judged the way others have been, but since this is such an ambitious undertaking, to write a symphonic movement and plan a symphony, I feel that we should up the standards on this one. We have people willing to make it happen so why not do it that way.