Notes From the Piano

The Beardsley Cup, composed of sterling silver and manufactured in 1907 in London, resides in a custom built display case with the names of the winners of the Beardsley Competition.

As we head into 2021, I’m beginning preparations for the Fourth Annual Robert Buchanan Beardsley Piano Prize competition. It’s hard to believe we’re already talking about the fourth! I can still remember all the adventures we had setting up the first.

From very early in the process, I was given the opportunity to run the competition, and I just sort of went with it. It’s been a thrill-ride ever since, and I now look forward to it more than any other event in the Ruthmere calendar. There are so many facets to putting it together. I thought you might enjoy learning some of the backstage details that go into coordinating this event.

But first a little backstory. I’d never done anything quite like this before, so I had no first-hand experience. My mentors, if you will, are actually Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving. For those of you who might not get this cryptic reference, Richard and Amy co-starred in the 1980 movie The Competition, a romance about two struggling pianists who enter the Super Bowl of piano competitions and, of course, end up falling in love—and all the complications that entails.

Romance aside, The Competition served as much more than mere entertainment for me. In addition to being packed with gorgeous music and appealing stars (I still have a bit of a crush on Amy), the movie spends much of its time on the backstage aspects of the competition—everything from press coverage to what to do in the event of a mechanical failure in the middle of a performance. (A Russian defection adds a little spice, too.)

Anyway, in the several dozen times I’ve watched this movie, I’ve picked up a lot of useful tidbits which I was able to put to good use over the last three years. Proof that Hollywood does have a bright side.

When we were setting up the first competition in 2018, it was all new territory, and not just for me. No one on the Ruthmere staff had ever done this before. But I rallied Amy and Richard (in spirit, at least) and set forth on The Quest. The Ruthmere Concert Committee, of which I am a proud member, discussed our expectations. Of course, we really didn’t have any at that point. We opened the competition to anyone and everyone who felt they had a shot at the brass ring. That could have meant anything from “Thank you, David Helfgott. Now, here’s little Susie, age 5” to Vladimir Ashkenazy vs. Elton John: Boom-Boom in the Game Room.

What we got was an eye opener, to say the least!

Ruthmere’s Game Room, the location of the Robert B. Beardsley Piano Competition

In the first year, we had more than twenty entries from all over the Upper Midwest—and they were sensational to the last. I always knew there were some extremely talented underdogs in the world, those genii who have not yet been “discovered,” but I had no idea so many of them would come knocking on our door. All I can say is I’m glad I wasn’t judging, or even selecting the finalists, as I’d still be juggling names today.

Subsequent years have only gotten better. Even in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced so many events to be cancelled, we went ahead with a live competition. Many of the entrants had entered in previous years, including two former finalists. The judges picked their top six, who came to Elkhart and gave their best to a small but very appreciative audience. In the end it was one of those two former finalists who took home the top prize last year. Hyeseon Jin became the first woman to win the competition. Although she is no longer eligible to compete, she has now joined a strong list of potential performers for our Fall Concert Series, along with 2018’s winner, Nick Susi, and 2019’s Yixiang Hou.

Nicholas Susi

2018 Winner

Yixiang Hou

2019 Winner

Hyeseon Jin

2020 Winner

Needless to say, our expectations for 2021 are very high, and I’m sure we will not be disappointed.

More to come…