Maestro Pauls considers television's dictate to be the problem with music competitions for young performers

July 12, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Maestro Pauls considers the dictate of television to be a problem of music contests for young performers. He expressed this point of view today at a press conference - "Star Hour" with the creative delegation of Latvia, BELTA correspondent reports. Using the popular Latvian contest "New Wave" as an example, People's Artist of the USSR, Honorary Doctor of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, outstanding Latvian composer Raimonds Pauls is confident that the excessive pressure from directors and producers of contests hinders performers' self-expression. According to him, the director tells the singer what to sing, where to stand. "Any music festival has the same drawbacks: television decides everything, whoever has the rating," said Raimonds Pauls. The maestro names poor hosting as another drawback of such contests. "These hosts, frankly speaking, get on my nerves. They want to say something witty, but it turns out stupid," he said irritably. "All this already smells of mothballs. We need to change!" Meanwhile, young participants of the contests themselves need to work on themselves and their repertoire, Raimonds Pauls added. After all, winning a contest is just the first step to success. Being one of the organizers of "New Wave," the maestro considers the idea of ​​organizing a creative competition between the participants of "New Wave" and the international contest of pop song performers "Vitebsk" to be interesting. "It would turn out to be an elegant show program with the participation of young people. This is another chance for them," he is confident. -0-