The Department of Music at Towson University has a variety of ensembles including a symphony orchestra, a symphonic band, several choirs, a “Music for the Stage” program, jazz ensembles, and small instrumental ensembles. Audition information for Fall 2021 is below.
Please contact Diana Sáez (dsaez AT_TOWSON) for additional information.
Auditions for both ensembles will take place in Dr. Cicconi's office, in person, which is room CA 3089. You can sign up for a time RIGHT NOW on this google sheet.
Auditions will take place on Monday August 30th, Tuesday, August 31st, Thursday September 2nd, and Friday September 3rd. The first rehearsals will take place the second week of classes, the week of September 6th (September 7th will be the first rehearsal day).
Symphonic Band meets TTh 2:00pm-3:15pm and Symphony Orchestra meets TTh 3:30pm-5:20pm. Please be sure to SIGN UP and REGISTER for the ensembles.
During the audition process (blind auditions) you will be asked to place the attached excerpts in the dropbox link below. Please find your particular instrument, download the file, and prepare the selection. You only need to prepare for selections that are within the brackets. Please note, your excerpts may be over a span of 1-10 pages, be sure to download them all but only play the excerpts within the brackets. The AUDITION MUSIC is taken from TWO pieces. All of the WIND music (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, Euphonium, and Tuba) will be taken from Symphony No. 4 by David Maslanka; all of the STRING music (Violin, Viola, Cello, and Bass) will be taken from Russian Easter Overture by Rimsky-Korsakov; and various percussion excerpts will be provided by Dr. Humphreys. If you would like to listen to your excerpts, they can be found on this playlist.
Please sign up for the class, band and/or orchestra as soon as possible. If you need to be authorized, please let me know immediately.
STRING PLAYERS: All string players will be played in the symphony orchestra. The audition will simply help me to find your seating placements.
The repertoire for this semester is some of the very best yet, so, please consider playing again. It is going to be AWESOME. I can tell you BOTH ensembles will be doing a major symphony written for their genre, but, for the first time, I am going to announce the full list of repertoire on the first day of rehearsals. I can tell you, its TERRIFIC. A lot of it you picked last semester!
Both groups have numbers exciting performances over the course of the semester and I cannot wait to work with you all again. I look forward to a terrific semester of music making and am proud and humbled, as always to be your director! DrC
Concerts:
MMEA New Music Reading Session (Time and Place, TBA)
Masterworks for Strings and Chamber Winds (October 12th and October 13th, 8:00pm)
College Band Directors National Association Gala Performance (Saturday, November 20th)
Symphony Orchestra Concert (Saturday, December 4th, 3:00pm)
Symphonic Band Concert (Thursday, December 9th, 8:00pm)
Honor Band Performance (Saturday, December 11th, Time TBA)
Dropbox Link to Audition Music
Spotify Playlist of Audition Music
Anyone interested in auditioning for the TU Jazz Orchestra, or who would like more information, please contact either Jim McFalls (mjim AT_TOWSON) or Dave Ballou (dballou AT_TOWSON) directly.
Non-Major?
Our large ensemble recruitment scholarship program is designed to recruit non-music majors to participate in Jazz Orchestra, Symphonic Band, Symphony Orchestra and the TU Choirs.