Hyrum Arnesen (a second-year graduate student in Dr. Stephen Beus’s studio) recently won the 2019 Utah Chapter of the Music Teachers National Association Competition, carrying on a longstanding tradition of competitive BYU performers. Hanae Yamamoto, a senior in Dr. Scott Holden’s studio, and Gregory Smith, a junior in Dr. Stephen Beus’s studio, were also recognized in the competition, receiving two of the three honorable mentions.
Attached are his responses to an interview about the competition:
How do you prepare for competitions, specifically?
Hyrum: Preparing for any competition requires detailed planning and diligent work. If it were up to me, I would practice every note of every piece every day but time is often limited to 4-6 hours a day and not the 8-10 hours I would like each day to prepare. I prioritize my practicing around which sections of which pieces need the most work, starting with the toughest sections first. Sometimes I plan to just work on a single melodic line or a specific sound i want to capture in a certain section. I also give myself small goals to work for such as performing a movement of one piece 3 times in one week. My practice is a mix of slow, medium, and fast work. The metronome is on almost constantly unless I want to work on musicality or see how well I can capture the pulse without the metronome. Overall, I try to capture the right sound, character, and musicality for each part of the piece, planning out exactly how my hands, wrists, and arms need to move to create that. Practice performances are also a vital part of preparing for a competition. I don't think I did quite as well this year with practice performances but I had played my entire program in a performance situation 3 to 5 times.
You recently moved from Dr. Irene Peery-Fox’s studio to Dr. Stephen Beus’s. How has studying with a new teacher changed your practice?
Hyrum: Studying with Dr. Beus has been a new and growing experience. He has played both of my pieces for the competition and has really championed the Barber sonata so it's been great to hear his ideas and specific feedback. In our lessons we end up talking a lot about the character I am trying to capture. I feel like studying with him has helped me be more prepared and become my own artist.
What’s the next step in this competition?
Hyrum: The next round is a video round. I think this is the first time they have made the region round a video competition. The competitors consist of the winners of all the states in the Southwest division - Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, New mexico. I think those are all the states. The winner of the region round will compete at the Nationals in Chicago in March. There will be 7 competitors, one from each region.
What’s the next step for you?
Hyrum: My plan after graduation is to begin a doctorate program. I am applying to several schools, mostly in the midwest. A video round for the MTNA competition works well because I have to send in prescreening videos for doctorate schools anyway. I've loved BYU and I'm excited to go experience something new and different.
Any other thoughts on the competition?
I did not originally plan to compete in MTNA this year because my wife and I were going to have a baby only weeks before. However, I thought MTNA would be a good motivation and practice performance for doctorate auditions coming up. So we made small sacrifices so I could practice. After little Eleanor was born I took some days off of practicing and then tried to make up for it in any way I could. It was definitely tough to practice and compete with little sleep and so many things changing but I did my best and the judges happened to like my playing. Competitions are weird things - you could lose one you should have won and you can win one in which you aren't actually the best competitor. I have the highest admiration for the musicality and pianism of the other competitors whose playing I hear pretty regularly. A different day, different judges, different piano could have all leaned toward a different winner.
We anxiously look forward to his continued success.
Congratulations Hyrum, Hanae, and Gregory!