About Crescendo Auditions
Auditions for the 2020-2021 Crescendo season will take place virtually on September 21, 2020. Complete an audition application below. Please email Elizabeth O'Hara Stahr at crescendo@arlingtonphilharmonic.org with questions or inquiries.
Crescendo members and parents will experience a different focus from their very first interaction with the organization – the audition. Crescendo provides feedback from the audition to all students, regardless of acceptance, giving participants a sense of their strengths and areas in which they could improve. Additionally, the audition itself will differ from others because the audition panel is able to interact with students to uncover skills that may be hard to identify as a result of the limitations of a standard audition format or simple nerves on the part of young player. Judges look for a student’s ability to take instruction and to quickly assimilate new information. Such skills weigh equally in the decision making process as a student’s playing and/or sight‐reading abilities.
Audition Requirements
Any student in eighth through twelfth grade is eligible to audition for Crescendo. Requirements for the audition include:
- Prepared Solo (one movement from a multiple movement piece is acceptable): Candidates should be prepared to perform their solo selection in its entirety, however, because of time constraints, judges may ask candidates to start or end anywhere within the piece. Candidates should provide an original copy of the music (which will be returned at the end of the audition) and should play the audition using a separate copy of their music or from memory.
- Prepared Excerpts: Candidates must prepare one or more excerpts from the standard chamber music repertoire and be prepared to play them both alone and with members of the audition panel. Excerpts will be provided upon registration for audition.
- Judge/Candidate Interaction: Candidates will perform the prepared excerpts as part of a string quartet made up of the audition panel. Judges will interact with each candidate to assess his or her comfort level with the small ensemble setting, his or her ability to take direction, and the candidate's ability to make quick and appropriate musical adjustments. Some candidates may be asked to sight-read.
- Scales: There are no scales required for this audition.
Audition Registration
Requesting an audition requires two steps:
1) Complete the online application form (click the button below).
2) Pay the $40 audition fee online through the Arlington Philharmonic Square portal (click the button below).
After receipt of the application and the application fee, a Crescendo representative will contact parents/guardians to provide the audition excerpt and to schedule a specific time for the audition.
After the audition, notification letters will be mailed within two weeks of a candidate’s audition date. Written feedback from the audition panel will be included in the mailing. Information regarding further details of a candidate’s individual audition beyond that provided in the mailing will not be available. Please email Crescendo [at] ArlingtonPhilharmonic.org if you have any questions.
1) Complete the online application form (click the button below).
2) Pay the $40 audition fee online through the Arlington Philharmonic Square portal (click the button below).
After receipt of the application and the application fee, a Crescendo representative will contact parents/guardians to provide the audition excerpt and to schedule a specific time for the audition.
After the audition, notification letters will be mailed within two weeks of a candidate’s audition date. Written feedback from the audition panel will be included in the mailing. Information regarding further details of a candidate’s individual audition beyond that provided in the mailing will not be available. Please email Crescendo [at] ArlingtonPhilharmonic.org if you have any questions.
