Auditions

We will be holding our annual auditions the evening of Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 in the Old Stuyvesant Campus, 345 East 15th Street. If you would like to audition to join one of New York City’s top community orchestras, please read the requirements below and then email auditions@gvo.org to get on the list (include your name and instrument). We will contact you with the exact time and location of your audition.

We currently have full-membership positions open for all string players and French Horn, and substitute positions for other winds and brass.

About the orchestra

You can read about the orchestra here, and you may also want to learn more about our Music Director, Barbara Yahr, hear the orchestra, read reviews of some past concerts, and see what we performed in the 2011/12 season.

The orchestra typically puts on six concerts during a season that runs from October through May (the 2012/13 season will have fewer concerts as our regular venue is unavailable). Concerts are usually on Sunday afternoons and are preceded by five to seven rehearsals on Tuesday evenings plus a dress rehearsal the Saturday morning before the concert. Members are not asked to pay dues to play with the orchestra.

Requirements

Strings

Please prepare two movements from the standard solo concerto or sonata repertoire demonstrating contrasting musical styles and technical work. A movement from a Bach solo work is recommended.

Please note that we will only review a total of five minutes of playing.

Woodwinds

Please present five minutes of a movement from a standard solo work of your choice, and be prepared to play any excerpt from the following list.

Flute

Debussy, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune — opening solo
Beethoven, Leonore Overture No. 3 — solo

Piccolo

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 — Third movement solos
Shostakovich, Symphony No. 9 — First and Second movement solos

Oboe

Stravinsky, Pulcinella — Gavotta (con due variazioni)
Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn — Theme in second oboe part

English horn

Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 — Second movement solo
Rossini, William Tell Overture — solo at Andante after letter E

Clarinet

Rimsky-Korsakov, Sheherazade — solos
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 — First movement solo (at moderato assai, quasi andante)
Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2 — Third movement solo (beginning at measure 6)

Bassoon

Mozart, Marriage of Figaro Overture
Rimsky-Korsakov, Sheherazade — Second movement solos
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 — First movement opening solo

Contra bassoon

Ravel, Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose) — IV. Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête
Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn

Brass

Please prepare five minutes of a movement from the concerto specified, or a work of similar style. You will also be asked to play any excerpt from the following list.

French horn

Recommended concerto: any Mozart horn concerto
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 — Second movement solo
Stravinsky, Firebird Suite — Finale solo

Trumpet

Recommended concerto: Haydn, Concerto in E-flat Major
Mussorgsky-Ravel, Pictures at an Exhibition — First Promenade
Respighi, Pines of Rome — II. Pini presso una catacomba, off-stage solo
Beethoven, Leonore Overture No. 3 — off-stage solo

Trombone

Recommended concerto: Rimsky-Korsakov, Concerto in B-flat Major, First movement
Ravel, Boléro — figure 10 through figure 11
Mozart, Requiem — Tuba Mirum tenor trombone solo
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 — First movement, letter D through F, Fourth movement, letter T to 11 after U
Rossini, William Tell Overture — letter C through 9 measures after letter D (the storm scene)

Bass trombone

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 — First movement, letter D through F, Second movement, letter I to end
Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries — figures 4 through 5, and 6 through 7
Rossini, William Tell Overture — letter C through 9 measures after letter D (the storm scene)

Tuba

Recommended concerto: Vaughan Williams, Concerto in F Minor, First movement
Berlioz, Rákóczi (Hungarian) March from The Damnation of Faust — figure 4 to figure 5
Wagner, Overture to Die Meistersinger — letter J through letter L
Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries — Main theme
Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5 — First movement, figures 3 through 6

Percussion

Please email auditions@gvo.org for audition requirements.