Auditions

Auditions for our 2025–26 season are now open and will take place the evening of Thursday, September 4, 2024 at Sunlight Studios, 321 West 44th Street, Suite 202, NYC.

We currently have the following positions open:

• Section double bass
• Second oboe/English horn
• Acting principal trombone

If you would like to apply for one of these positions, carefully read the requirements for your family and instrument, then email auditions@gvo.org to reserve an audition time slot.

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 past seasons.

The orchestra typically puts on five or six concerts during a season that runs from early autumn through May. Concerts usually take place on Sunday afternoons in Manhattan and are preceded by five to seven rehearsals on Tuesday evenings (usually 6:30 to 9:15pm), plus a dress rehearsal the Saturday morning before the concert. The planned schedule and venues for the year will be posted in advance to this site.

Members are not asked to pay dues to play with the orchestra, however regular attendance at rehearsals is expected.

Requirements

Please note that you should bring the music for your solo work(s) and/or excerpts with you to your audition. The excerpts can usually be found in orchestral excerpt books, or downloaded from IMSLP.

Strings

Double Bass

Please present two solos of your choice in contrasting styles.

Woodwinds

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

Second Oboe/English Horn

Note that second woodwind players will regularly be asked to perform principal parts in concerts throughout the season.

Oboe

• Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn — Theme in second oboe part
• Brahms, Violin Concerto — Second movement solo
• Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 3 — Second movement, pick-up to letter A to letter B
• Rossini, La scala di seta — opening solo
• Strauss, Don Juan — solo

English Horn

• Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 — Second movement solo
• Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique — Third movement, beginning to figure 37; and figure 49 to end

Brass

Please present five minutes of a movement from a concerto of your choice, and be prepared to play any excerpt from your instrument’s list.

Acting Principal Trombone

• Schumann, Symphony No. 3 — Fourth movement, Feirlich, beginning to bar 23
• Rossini, William Tell Overture — letter C through 9 bars after letter D (the storm scene)
• Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries — figure 3 (with pick up) through figure 6
• Bartok, Symphonie fantastique — Fourth movement, figure 56 to figure 57