Whether generated by the appeal of reality television or the means of promoting talented musicians, competitions seem to be more popular than ever these days. While we’ll let the experts debate the worth of these contests, they certainly have made the careers of some musicians and also created scandals, of which we’ve collected the five most notorious:

WQXR’s Bob Sherman is in Florida this week, listening very closely to music by the Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin.