First Competition

Final Report of the Events Final Decision of the judges Images of the competing instruments Images of the winning instruments
CASA PAOLI, PONCE P.R. October 2, 1999	Vanished instruments come to life again... Over thirty beautiful hand-made early cuatro, tiple and bordonua instruments were delivered to the Casa Paoli to be judged in the competition. They came from all parts of Puerto Rico.They were instruments that had not been made for generations. But this time each one was made in the "old style" according to the custom of the region, or according to patterns suggested by the Cuatro Project --following evidence from its nine years of accumulated research.
	The judging begins... During the evaluations, the judges never knew or saw the names of the makers. Instead, each instrument bore a tag with a number--its sole identifier. Competition judge Juan Sotomayor is seen at left evaluating a bordonúa. There were two judges who are reknown instrument makers; three judges with advanced musical and teaching credentials and two observers. The artisan judges judged the qualities of craftsmanship of each instrument. The musician judges judged the musical qualities of each instrument.
	The process...There were two phases in the judging process.The first phase selected the finalists according to the sum of all the points awarded by both sets of judges according to a list of criteria agreed by them beforehand. The number of entries was thus reduced to nine finalists, a group that consisted of three cuatros, three tiples and three bordonúas. These finalists qualified for the second and final phase: the "test of performance." Each instrument finalist was played in turn by an expert player, out of sight of the judges who listened wiith their back turned. As they listened, they scored the qualities of sound and projection of each finalist
	The winner... was announced the following week during a gala public event in the courtyard of the Casa Paoli (the original residence of the world renown turn-of-the-century Puerto Rican operatic tenor Antonio Paoli). The shocking results: One maker, virtually unknown by most of the veterans assembled, won first prize in all three categories!!
AND THE WINNER IS...! The winner in all three categories, to every one's surprise, was AURELIO CRUZ of the town of Morovis. His winning cuatro, tiple and bordonúa are seen below....
	The winning cuatro, made in the tulip shape which is traditional to the instrumentmaker's region.
The winning Tiple Doliente, made out of a particularly beautiful piece of dark Maga wood.
The winning bordonúa carries the ancient "empichao" embellishment (small circular inlays around the perimeter of the soundbox and soundhole). It won the judges' top honors for sound quality and projection. The winner, Aurelio Cruz, his wife and friends celebrate his unprecedented triple award.