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[quote=Anonymous]There is a difference between teachers who [i]focus[/i] on competitions, and teachers who [i]encourage[/i]  kids who are interested in competitions to compete. In general, competition wins start to become meaningful and valuable when kids get into their teens; at that point there are cash prizes of meaningful size, opportunities that come from the win (such as the chance to perform a concerto with orchestra, which is an awesome experience), and the experience of playing under pressure which is vital for students who are considering future music careers.

From what I can tell, Olga Khroulevitch has a competition focus. Amy Beth Horman did as well. Lya Stern does not, but encourages her teenage students to enter competitions. Emil Chudnovsky also does not, but also encourages his teenage students, especially the ones in their  late teens, to enter. Ronda Cole does not, but is supportive of her students who want to compete.

In lieu of looking at who is winning competitions, you can also look at who the teachers are of the concertmasters of the youth symphonies. (Emil Chudnovsky's students are pretty dominant this year, I think, but this is something that will change year to year depending on the ages of students in a studio and how that maps against the ages of the orchestras.)

I disagree that if you're good, your students never leave. There's always some natural turnover (people move out of town, kids decide to pull back to focus on a sport, etc.) but kids do switch studios locally as they move up or down in seriousness, so to speak. Lya Stern and Ronda Cole, for instance, both have very high expectations for how much a student practices a day; if you can't put in a steady 2+ hours a day, you're going to get kicked out of their studios. If you're hoping to go into a professional career, you might eventually shift to study with someone like Victor Danchenko (a world-famous pedagogue who does take a handful of teenaged students, though he is mostly a teacher of college-and-beyond students).[/quote]

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