Unusual Competition Bracket: need advice, please

[ciuineadas]

The upcoming Flute Faire for my area divides their brackets by age rather than Level. I fall into the top bracket, which will pretty much include everyone Level 6 and above. I don't want to assume (though I'm probably right) that anyone playing a score of lesser difficulty would have very little chance against a Level 10 unless they're having a particularly bad day.

As it is, I'm a slightly out-of-practice Level 9 that's perhaps over-fond of Baroque and Modern music, and not so much of Widor. As of this post, I have 175 days to get back in trim. My options as I see them are thus: I can select a Level 8 that I'm extremely comfortable with, a Level 9 that I'm moderately comfortable with and can build back up to in those 175 days, or go for broke and try to master a Level 10 score in that same amount of time.

What would anyone recommend (both modus operandi and solo score)? Others have suggested Baksa's Soliloquy, Vivaldi's Concerto in C, Arnold's Concerto for Flute Op. 45, Hanson's Serenada, or Larson's Movin' On but I have conflicting information on where those seem to fall in regards to level of difficulty.

[fluteguy18]

Not necessarily. A clean and musical program of lesser difficulty will almost always beat a program that is more difficult but not necessarily executed accurately.

[ciuineadas]

Thanks, fluteguy. Sometimes being out of the competitive arena and in the real world where the 'judges' play favorites skews my perception of things, so I tend to assume the worst. I've got my choices narrowed down considerably now, to things that are reasonably within my realm of ability given the timeframe. Unfortunately, this required rather strong words with my director, who likes to forgets that I have musically-related health issues that at times limit what I can play.