The second Roland V-Accordion Championship and The first Roland V-Accordion Open Competition

2008 Rules, Conditions and Entry Form
 

The Championship Competition

The V-Accordion Championship is a competition open to both junior and senior accordion soloists. The UK National Final is to be held at St Audries Bay in Somerset, during the V-Accordion Festival September 6th and 7th, 2008 (the UK competition final to be held on Sunday 7th). The winner of the junior championship will win a Roland FR2 V-Accordion. The winner of the senior category will win a Roland FR7 V-Accordion and be invited to take part in the International Final which will be held in Italy in early November, where the winner will win 5,000 Euros.

How to Enter

· The competition is open to any UK resident, amateur or professional aged 18 and over (senior soloist) or under 17 (junior soloist) by the entry deadline of 1st August 2008.
· Entry is free and must be applied for using an official Roland entry form. Each entry must be accompanied by a either an audio or digital video, (DV) tape or DVD of your recorded performance.
· Your performance must be no longer than 5 minutes in length and can feature any genre of music.
· The recording does not need to be professionally filmed but needs to be of sufficient quality to enable the judges to clearly see and hear the artist/s performance.
· The name of the piece/s of music and the composer must be stated verbally at the beginning of your recording.
· You may enter this stage of the competition using any type of accordion.
· The adjudication of recorded material will take place on 5th August 2008 and entrants will be notified as to their status in the competition in the week following the adjudication.
· National (and international finalists) will be required to perform using a Roland V-Accordion. Loan units will be made available for practice purposes 2 weeks before the national final.
· Contestants may only perform in one competition section at the festival.

Requirements to be a contestant

SENIOR SOLOIST division

· Participants who were born before April 1st, 1990 belong to the senior category. Minimum required age: 18 years.
· Any genre of music is allowed.
· At the National /International Final, the finalists are allowed to use just one V-Accordion they are not allowed to use any external module. They are allowed to use any V-Accordion onboard orchestral sounds in addition to the V-Accordion onboard accordion sounds and PAD, PAD loop functions only for FR-2/FR-2b models.
· At the National/International Final, contestants may not use any audio playback as CD, iPOD etc. (as a backing track) and/or external sound modules, MIDI sequencers.
· The winner of the previous International V-Accordion Competition may not participate in other V-Accordion Festivals.
· The winners of the National competitions may participate in future V-Accordion Festivals.

JUNIOR SOLOIST division

· Participants who were born after April 1st, 1990 belong to the Junior category. Maximum allowed age: 17 years.
· Any genre of music is allowed.
· At the National Final, the finalists are allowed to use just one V-Accordion they are not allowed to use any external module. They are allowed to use any V-Accordion onboard orchestral sounds in addition to the V-Accordion onboard accordion sounds and PAD, PAD loop functions only for FR-2/FR-2b models.
· At the National Final, contestants may not use any audio playback as CD, iPOD etc. (as a backing track) and/or external sound modules, MIDI sequencers.
· Junior soloist entrants may only participate in the National competition as there is no junior international competition.

Adjudication of Recorded Materials

· The pre-selection session is not open to the public.
· Judgement shall be made by a jury appointed by Roland UK, based on the recorded performance submitted by each applicant.
· At the pre-selection the jury will choose the contestants that shall be entitled to compete in the national final (national finalists).
· A maximum of ten National Finalists per category will be chosen. If there aren’t sufficient numbers of competitors of an appropriate standard, Roland reserve the right to reduce the number of finalists OR combine the two categories with one qualifier OR cancel the Final.
· Roland UK will not be able to return the recordings to entrants nor give any reasons regarding their qualification.

National Final

· The National Final will be open to the public.
· Every National Finalist (senior and junior soloists) shall play for a maximum of 10 minutes, on stage in front of an audience and the jury members.
· At the senior and junior divisions, National Finalists may play only V-Accordion for a maximum of 10 minutes (No limitations about the number of songs).

International Final

· The International Final will take place in Rome during November 2008. The International Final is an event which will be open to the public.
· Roland UK will send the winner from the senior category to compete against winners of other European national Roland V-Accordion challenges.
· During the 1st day of the International final all finalists shall perform for a maximum of 10 minutes in front of the jury.
· On the 2nd day the final round shall take place. At the final round all participants may perform for a maximum of 3 minutes. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranking winners will be announced. The prizes are as follows:

Ø The 1st prize is: 5000 Euro
Ø The 2nd prize is: 2000 Euro
Ø The 3rd prize is: 1000 Euro

What the judges will be looking for

a) Technical skill
b) Musical Interpretation
c) Creativity/Imagination
d) Specific skill in exploiting the whole potential of V-Accordion. Please note: the judges will not penalise a player for using only accordion sounds, although marks may be added for creativity in this area.
e) Originality
f) Communication ability (We mean the ability of musicians to communicate without words, by expressing and conveying abstract emotional messages by playing their music and musical instrument.)

SCORE RANGE :-

Not Good = 1 – 5
Good = 6 – 10
Very Good = 11 – 15
Excellent = 16 – 20

· Each one of the above (a-f) criteria points will be assigned a mark from 1 (lowest mark) to 20 (highest mark) according to above “SCORE RANGE” table.
· The marks obtained for a,b,f criteria will be multiplied by a factor of 2 because their importance is greater than other criteria.
· The sum of all marks will determine the overall points (full mark =180 points) and the final judgement of contestants.

General Rules and Conditions

· The jury has the right not to award any prize whenever candidates do not prove to have enough artistic skills.
· No judgement may be expressed by any jury member who is acquainted with one or more contestants because of family ties or educational relations (up to two years before the contest).
· Should a member of the jury have a relationship, professional or otherwise, with one of the above categories of contestant in the competition the member of the jury will not be able to vote for that contestant and an average mark from the other three jurors will be added to the total score in place of that juror.
· The judgement expressed by the jury is final and irrevocable.
· Any possible use of auditions and of the final concert for TV, Radio Broadcast or for Internet purposes shall not make contestants eligible for any fee.
· Applying for the contest means accepting these regulations without conditions.
· In the National Final, contestants shall pay for their own travel and accommodation expenses. Roland UK in conjunction with EMF is ready to help contestants in finding accommodation.
· In the International Final the cost of contestants’ travel and accommodation shall be covered by Roland UK and Roland Europe.
· Roland does not accept any responsibility for any occurrence to contestants before, during and after the contest.
· In the event that the national winners cannot attend the international final they must let Roland UK know 3 weeks before the final so an alternative can be sought.
· Contestants may only perform in one competition section at the festival.


The Open Sections Competition (Beginner, Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced)

The judging of these sections will be based on four general standards of playing ability (Beginner, Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced) and are open to all ages. All entries are to be played on a V-Accordion and instruments will be available on the day for use in the competition by those who do not have their own V-Accordion. Each section has a choice of test pieces from which one must be selected and played in the competition. In addition the contestant is to play an own choice piece of appropriate standard, duration of which is to be of no more than 5 minutes. These sections will be judged on the same day as the Championship Final at the V-Accordion Festival (at St Audries Bay in Somerset, during the weekend of September 6th and 7th, 2008). Cash prizes and trophies will be given to the winner of each section and the winner will also be invited to play in the “Winners Concert” on the Sunday evening.

How to Enter
 

· The competition is open to any UK resident, amateur or professional by the entry deadline of 1st August 2008.
· Entry is free and must be applied for using an official Roland entry form.
· Contestants may only perform in one competition section at the festival.

General Rules and Conditions

· If the contestants are using music during the competition they must be original copies (no photo copies will be allowed). Handwritten or computer manuscript is acceptable if performing original compositions.
· Original sheet music will be supplied by EMF to the judges for the test pieces
· Three copies of the contestants own choice music must be given to the judges before the competition starts. Original manuscripts are preferred. However photocopies may be used. All photocopies must be labelled on the front page in red pen “For judging use only, please destroy after the competition”.
· You must play a test piece from the list (please see below) for your section and then play an own choice piece which must be no longer than 5 minutes in length and can feature any genre of music.
· The name of the piece/s of music and the composer must be stated verbally at the beginning of your recording.
· The jury has the right not to award any prize whenever candidates do not prove to have enough skills.
· No judgement may be expressed by any jury member who is acquainted with one or more contestants because of family ties or educational relations (up to one year before the contest).
· The judgement expressed by the jury is final and irrevocable.
· Any possible use of the competition or subsequent winners concert performance for TV, Radio Broadcast or for Internet purposes shall not make contestants eligible for any fee.
· Applying for the contest means accepting these regulations without conditions.
· Contestants shall pay for their own travel and accommodation expenses. Roland UK in conjunction with EMF is ready to help contestants in finding accommodation.
· Roland does not accept any responsibility for any occurrence to contestants before, during and after the contest.
· Any genre of music is allowed for own choice pieces.
· Competition entrants are allowed to use just one V-Accordion they are not allowed to use any external module. They are allowed to use any V-Accordion onboard orchestral sounds in addition to the V-Accordion onboard accordion sounds and PAD, PAD loop functions only for FR-2/FR-2b models.
· Contestants may not use any audio playback as CD, iPOD etc. (as a backing track) and/or external sound modules, MIDI sequencers.
· Entrants will be required to perform using a Roland V-Accordion. Loan units will be made available for practice and competition use on Sat 6th and 7th at the venue. Roland will endeavour to give all entrants a fair and equal share of loan instruments.
· Competition performances will be open to the public
· Contestants may only perform in one competition section at the festival.

What the judges will be looking for

a) Technical skill
b) Musical Interpretation
c) Creativity/Imagination
d) Specific skill in exploiting the whole potential of V-Accordion. Please note: the judges will not penalise a player for using only accordion sounds, although marks may be added for creativity in this area.
e) Originality
f) Communication ability (We mean the ability of musicians to communicate without words, by expressing and conveying abstract emotional messages by playing their music and musical instrument.)

SCORE RANGE :-

Not Good = 1 – 5
Good = 6 – 10
Very Good = 11 – 15
Excellent = 16 – 20

· Each one of the above (a-f) criteria points will be assigned a mark from 1 (lowest mark) to 20 (highest mark) according to above “SCORE RANGE” table.
· The marks obtained for a,b,f criteria will be multiplied by a factor of 2 because their importance is greater than other criteria.
· The sum of all marks will determine the overall points (full mark =180 points) and the final judgement of contestants.

· Each one of the above (a-f) criteria points will be assigned a mark from 1 (lowest mark) to 20 (highest mark) according to above “SCORE RANGE” table.
· The marks obtained for a,b,f criteria will be multiplied by a factor of 2 because their importance is greater than other criteria.
· The sum of all marks will determine the overall points (full mark =180 points) and the final judgement of contestants.

Test Pieces

All the music for the test pieces above may be obtained from Trevani on 0208 656 1450
email: music@trevani.co.uk  website: www.trevani.co.uk

Entry Form

Please download and fill in the entry form. You will need Adobe reader installed to open the entry form and can be downloaded from here.

Download the entry form here.