By Alex Stoddard
I had a fantastic day today. I’m very, very blessed.
Great people. Great city. Great singing. A great event.
The day started today with another feast at breakfast. The second day was easier to choose from as I already knew the dishes I wanted. My highlight, though, was seeing fried pork liver as an option. Mmmmmm.
The Final Round of the competition didn’t start until 2 p.m., so we had the morning free. I took advantage of the time to do the thing I love to do when I’m on the road in a new or big city: walk. I’ve found that the best way to see the city for me is on foot; be amongst the people and just walk. And walk I did.
I set out for some local shopping, but it was too early for the shops. So I made my way down the main road of the city for a few kilometers down to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Wow, there are some beautiful buildings, architecture, and flowers. After going through around the square I meandered by a happy accident to the mecca of tourist shopping. Unfortunately because I was alone I really don’t know what the name of the area was. But it was a combination of Old China and new world with a mix of McDonalds, Starbucks, and Haagen-Daas with traditional souvenir shops and the like. I was able to do my first foray into souvenir shopping of the trip.
That led me to the Hutong area. Think of old China and boom, that’s where you’re at. Narrow, crowded streets with bicyclists, mopeds, and pedestrians calmly finding their path. Dozens and dozens of shops, restaurants, cafes, drug stores, and motels line the streets where automobiles are banned. At a make-shift open air market I found the most delicious apple I’ve ever eaten—and that’s really not an exaggeration. Maybe it tasted so good because I gave in and ate a quick lunch at McDonalds. 🙂
Long story short, I zig zagged my way through old Beijing, new Beijing, tall Beijing, busy Beijing, residential Beijing, and, well, you get the point. I even stumbled upon a Walmart! After four and half hours of walking I finally made it back to my hotel, just in time to shower and change for the Final Round and the rest of the festivities of the day.
And what festivities they were! The singing once again was fabulous. To prove this point, we had 11 American schools offer provisional acceptance awards to the singers. What this means is that the singer automatically passes audition portion of the application process. These singers pass the vocal standards and don’t have to audition again. The American schools were so impressed with the quality of singers that they gave out 43 acceptance awards with schools ready to offer more.
The afternoon was the Final Round Concert of 27 singers followed by an intense round of judging deliberations. This event was so unique because we had 12 judges having to come to a consensus for a First Place winner, two Second Place winners, and three Third Place winners.
But they found a way. Our winner was soprano Chen Yibao. It’s too late right now, but I’ll post pictures and videos of her performance later. She was really, really good. As were all the place winners. I loved their gowns and traditional Chinese formal wear. I couldn’t have been more impressed!
Chen now advances to the Semifinal Round of the CS Vocal Competition in Chicago (www.classicalsinger.com/vocalcompetition) where she’ll compete against the top singers in America in the University division. All of the finalists advance to the Second Round of the competition, but Chen won a round-trip ticket to Chicago and all expenses paid hotel.
It was a great night of awards.
Tomorrow we have the masterclass series.
Not sure how tomorrow could be any better than today, but we’ll see what we can do to make that happen!
Here are links to all the Blog posts from China:
Day 1 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2976
Day 2 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2986
Day 3 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2991
Day 4 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2997
Written by Alex Stoddard, General Manager of Classical Singer and Auditions Plus. Email Alex at alex@classicalsinger.com and follow him at twitter.com/alstod.
