Absolute pitch is not a prerequisite for skilled musical performance or composition.

For his part, Mr. Clinton gave the same sort of skilled, generality-filled performance he has been delivering since the campaign began.

She was putting on a skilled performance, and no doubt recording it with care.

The production and reproduction of society thus has to be treated as a skilled performance on the part of its members.

The latter implies skilled performances which are sent by means of physical activity, like a spoken word or a handshake.

The performances, though skilled, lacked inspiration even where it might have been warranted.

Each is a skilled performance in frugality, but they are all too quickly forgettable.

Rita's nadir is the high point of a skilled performance.

But the limits of the kitchen's imagination and ambition mandate a more skilled performance, matched by less dismissive service.

"If it works out great, and the actor puts in a skilled performance, you don't think of who casts them."