Call it a symphony of confusion . . . or to be more in harmony, a study in concentration.
Behind closed doors at the Salt Palace Convention Center, there are a whole host of minirecitals going on. In one room, Ingrid Scherer is playing violin. Just a few feet away, Robyn Hendriksen softly pipes her flute. And in the opposite corner, Tiffany Christensen anxiously waits - with her mother, Val, nearby for support - to get a turn on a practice piano.Meanwhile, Bryan Stucki, Matthew Oshida and Nathan Jasinski are clowning around. Stucki is actually playing Oshida's violin like a cello by holding the instrument upright in his lap.
However, none of these young musicians - just a few of the contestants in the Utah State Fair/Snowbird 1997 Music Competition - are playing the same tune. That might be expected to give things either an almost comical or an extremely amateurish orchestral atmosphere. That is, if they weren't taking things quite so seriously.
Scherer - whose face betrayed her intense concentration - actually turned around at one point to shush Stucki and Oshida. And Christensen nervously played with her necklace and rocked slightly in her chair, but her demeanor appeared downright calm when compared to her mother's dazed expression.
"It seems kind of funny that they only have one piano," Val Chris-ten-sen observed while simultaneously talking to her daughter. "All of these kids are really good. See, I told you that you should practice more."
Tiffany Christensen nodded and then continued her nervous chair-rocking and finger-fiddling. The 17-year-old also plays cello and has gone to state competitions playing that instrument, but opted to compete on the piano instead "just for the fun of it."
"The piano is much harder to play than the cello, at least for me," said the junior piano participant. "There's a lot more competition between piano players, too. So that's kind of nice."
Of course, "nice" and "fun" aren't really what the three-day music competition is all about - it's about winning, obviously. The winners perform in special concerts held as part of the fair. (Those concerts will be held at the Utah State Fairpark on Tuesday and Wednesday.)
The music competition winners will also have a chance to audition for the Utah Symphony. Officials from the symphony will select some of the performers for its Nov. 25 "Salute to Youth" concert from the ranks of the winners.
"The judging this year is going to be really difficult," conceded Naomi Bonney, music coordinator for this year's Utah State Fair. "The talent in this state is incredible."
And Bonney, who competed in the 1956 contest, should know. In that time she has seen the number of contestants grow from a handful of students to an all-time high of 382 competitors in 17 different musical divisions this year.
"At the start, everybody was competing at the same time, in the same place. You would have piano, woods, strings and vocal all in the same room," she said. "Of course, it wasn't always a room they were in. One year, the competition was held in a tent at the fair, with the livestock nearby. The noise the animals made was even louder than the competitors."
This year, the competition was held in four different rooms at the slightly more tranquil convention center, as well as the Cathedral of St. Marks, where the junior and senior organ division contestants played.
For many of the competitors, playing for a trio of judges wasn't a big deal. Most of them have competed in school and state music contests. But playing the waiting game before the results were tabulated and posted had Hendriksen worried.
"I'm actually more nervous now than I was before I played," said the 17-year-old Orem resident, who competed in junior winds. "Just look at my hands, they're still shaking."
While Hendriksen's mother, Ruth, tried to calm her down, Stucki, Oshida and Jasinski continued their antics, this time to get their BYU classmate, Scherer, to lighten up.
"At least I can talk now. I was petrified before I played," Scherer said following her seven-minute recital.
"That's OK. You did great," Stucki reassured her.
And afterward, she and the other three senior strings contestants seemed happy not only that their individual performances were over, but also to skip their college classes.
"We all had our stress periods, but it's over now. And we're missing the first day of classes," Oshida said."Oh well, at least we've got a good excuse."