This afternoon I took 6 students to the International Fischoff Competition. You can see what it is here:

http://www.fischoff.org/

First I want to say that I cannot believe that I didn't know this was so close to my home! This is no ordinary competition-- this is one of those competitions where only the best of the best are there from all over the world, like the Van Cliburn competition for piano.

Getting to sit so close and watch such extraordinary talent is something special. The kids who won the under 18 division were simply amazing. There is no real description I can make that can convey the incredible amount of passion they put into their virtuosic playing.

If you ever get a chance to see something like this, give it a shot. If it bores you, I'm sorry. If it doesn't, I'm thrilled. If you ever played an instrument before, you will appreciate this level of talent even more. To me, these types of performances represent some of the best that humanity has to offer.

I'll definitely try to convince more of my students to come and see this next year. We are extremely lucky to have such a prestigious set of performances just 30 minutes away every year, and I intend to take advantage of this opportunity.

While this year's performances are not up at the moment, if you want to see some of the performances just google "Fischoff competition" and select Video results.