New Hampshire Middle School Honors Band

March 17, 2017, University of New Hampshire, Durham

Participant Information Packet

Festival Details

Band
Conductor: Dr. Deborah Confredo from Temple University
The program...
  • Awake the Iron, Scott Watson
  • Into the Clouds, Richard Saucedo
  • Bristol Bay Legend, Robert Sheldon
  • African Road, Paul Jennings
  • The Tears of Arizona, Brian Balmages

Flute Choir
Conductor: Aubrie Dionne, Manchester Community Music School
The program...
  • Scherzo, Op. 54, No. 5 by Edvard Grieg, arr. by Keith Amos
  • Menuet and Trio from Sonata, Op. 78, Schubert arr. by Clair W. Johnson
  • Scenes from the West by Harold L. Walters
  • Mocking Bird Transcribed by G.E. Holmes
  • Whispering Bamboo by Peter Kutt

Saxophone Choir
Conductor: Michael Adams, Pinkerton Academy, Derry, NH

Trumpet Choir
Conductor: Joseph Oneschuk, Wayland High School, Wayland, MA

Logistics
  • Date: Friday, March 17, 2017
  • Festival Host: Mark DeTurk and the Music Department of the University of New Hampshire
  • Concert start time: 7pm in the Paul Creative Arts Center's Johnson Theater

About the Honors Band Festival...

This audition oriented festival is open to NH middle school students. It includes:
  • an Honors Band.
  • a Saxophone Ensemble.
  • a Trumpet Ensemble.
  • a Flute Ensemble.

Auditions

Click the button to download everything you need to prepare and submit honors band auditions.
Audition and Information Materials Download

Tips for Submitting Successful Auditions

  1. Get the audition material to your students early so that they have enough time to prepare well. Don’t wait until November!
  2. Photocopy audition packets in advance for each instrument type in your band that you think might audition. That way students can look over the material to help them decide whether they want to audition.
  3. Allot plenty of time for audition preparation and recording! For most of the people that I speak with, the total time commitment is about one hour per auditioning student to help with preparation and to do the recording and CD burning.
  4. Check over all application materials to see that they are complete, accurate, and legible!
  5. Do at least a quick playback scan of all recorded auditions to make sure that all material is on the CD. Do this for all recordings, especially if the student gives you a recording in which you were not involved in the recording process.
  6. Please pack and ship application and recorded materials neatly and orderly. It adds a lot of time here to organize 20+ different applications and CD’s that come out of a box or envelope looking like they’d been spun through a bingo cage before mailing. Thank you for your consideration!

Showing tone along with articulation skills is just as important as speed and accuracy. Please stress this with your young musicians.

Don't forget to give your students the etudes listed in the NHBDA Audition Details and Applications Materials document.