The Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition applications are judged by a panel of Vandoren Artists for each category – Jazz, Clarinet, and Saxophone. The competition strives to maintain complete fairness and lack of bias in the judging process. Here are some of the mechanisms we have put into place to ensure a fair and honest competition.
- All applications are presented anonymously to judges. No names, photos, or other identifying information is attached to the application and only audio is accepted. Applicants are assigned a unique ID number and only discussed using this ID.
- Judges are not selected until after the application window has closed and the deadline has passed. This is to ensure that judges with a large number of students competing are not selected to judge the competition.
- Judges are unaware of other judges in their respective category until the deliberation meeting.
- Judges are selected to represent different styles of playing and/or education.
- No representatives or administrators from Vandoren or Dansr Inc, vote for the selection of prize winners.
- Applicant information is never revealed to the judges, before or after winners are selected.
- Judges’ notes or comments from the competition are never shared.
How applications are adjudicated.
- Judges are instructed to consider the musical qualities of a submission not the audio quality. However, poor audio quality can render it impossible or difficult for a judge to properly review an application.
Past judges for the competition have included the following Vandoren artists.
- Christopher Pell
- Mariam Adam
- Rose Sperrazza
- Todd Bashore
- Paul Carr
- Albert Rivera
- Harry Skoler
- Andrew Bishop
- Sharel Cassity
- Ralph Skiano
- Julianne Kirk-Doyle
- Caroline Davis
- Kenneth Tse
- David Bixler
- Noa Even
- Boris Allakhverdyan
- Jackie Glazier
- Greg Banaszak
- Caroline Hartig
- Greg Raden
- Alex Fiterstein
- Michael Wayne
- Jonathan Yanik
- Alex Beltran
- Julian Velasco
- Kris Allen
- Griffin Campbell
- Amy Zoloto
- Mark Gross
- Andrew Allen
- Roxy Coss
- Diego Rivera
- Mike Lee
- Jan Berry Baker
- Timothy Phillips
- Chisato Eda Marling
- Denis DiBlasio
- Greg Oakes
- Julius Tolentino
- Jeff Loeffert
- Kelly Burke
- Cecilia Kang
- Susan Fancher
- Doug Masek
- Walter Smith III
- Chien-Kwan Lin
- Phil Pierick
- Alexa Tarantino
- Nathan Nabb
- Kimberly Goddard Loeffert
- David Howard
- Nate Bogert
- Steve Stusek
- Shai Golan
- Pascual Martinez
- Lin Ma
- Stanislav Golovin
- Yoonah Kim
- Dan Gilbert
- Andrew Lowy
- Geoffrey Deibel
- Danny Janklow
- Emil Khudyev
- Gail Levinsky
- Allen Won
- Ralph Bowen
- Rose Sperrazza
- Jonathan Nichol
- Burt Hara
- YaoGuang Zhai
- Carrie Koffman
- Chad Burrow
- Victoria Luperi
- Tom Walsh
- Nicki Roman