A rewarding responsibility
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, June 27, 2009 10:32 PM PDT
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| JESSICA KELLER | ARGUS OBSERVER
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest judge Justin Banum, 25, St. Louis, plays the fiddle accompanied by former student James Schlender, 15, Bozeman, Mont., as another fiddler looks on in an impromptu jam session that was joined by other guitarists in the practice room at the contest Friday afternoon. |
WEISER —So why did a jazz violinist who is finishing his master’s degree for jazz arrangement at a school in St. Louis, Mo., end up as a first-time judge at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser?
Actually, the jump wasn’t that hard for Justin Branum, 25, who picked up his interest in jazz listening to fiddlers play western swing at a fiddle festival he once competed in. The trip to Weiser also wasn’t that new to Branum either. He won his division last year at the festival as a contestant and has actually competed in Weiser six years.
This year, however, Branum took a different role, judging the first three days of competition for the adult, small fry, junior and junior-junior divisions Monday through Wednesday.
“This year has been really, really great,” he said. “There’s been a lot of guys who came up who I haven’t seen in awhile.”
Diversity means a good competition, Branum said. He said he heard many talented people play the first three days of the competition — “many” being a key word.
While Branum has judged at various competitions for the past 10 years, Weiser’s fiddle festival is certainly the biggest, which makes judging harder. He said 74 or 75 contestants compete in the junior division alone this week, and that was both fun and exhausting. So many competitors makes it both hard for the judges, who have to pick the best out of so many, and for the contestants, as well.
“It’s difficult, I think, to make yourself stand out when there is such a large quantity (of players),” Branum said.
Branum said, while he knows many contestants get nervous, judging so many competitors also made him a bit nervous — as did performing before everybody in the evening after each day’s competition. Playing, however, is one thing; judging, he said, brings a certain amount of responsibility, which contributed to his nerves.
“You just want to do a good job,” he said, adding his biggest fear this year was not overlooking anybody and letting them slip through the cracks amid the volumes of players competing. “You just want to do a good job and be fair.”
Branum said taking notes helps him in contests, and he actually enjoyed judging the more than 70 players in the junior division this year because it forced him to listen carefully, which he said improves musicianship.
“It makes you pay attention more,” he said.
Branum, who has been playing the violin for 13 years and also plays mandolin and guitar, still plays in contests occasionally but has a different perspective about it since he became a judge.
“I don’t place as much importance on the contest anymore,” he said.
Judging, he said, means picking out the top five out of many contestants and determining who played the best. Winning a division does not mean, however, the top player is a better musician, he said. It just means they played better that day.
When he’s not judging contests, in the summer months, Branum teaches at fiddle camps or playing gigs with his jazz group in St. Louis, which he put off to stay a few days in Weiser this year to jam with the other musicians, visit with people he hasn’t seen in awhile and to accompany one of his former fiddle students during his performance.
“I have to get back sometime,” he said Friday.
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