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Community Music School
775 West Main Street
Trappe, PA 19426
610-489-3676
info@cmsmusic.org
www.cmsmusic.org

Home > Programs > Orchestra

General Information

By working with professional musicians in full rehearsal settings and in smaller sectional coaching sessions, members of GPHO gain valuable knowledge and experience of the classical masterworks while creating lasting bonds of friendship as they work with their musical peers.

This year, rehearsals for the GPHO festival will begin on Friday, April 8, 2005 at 7:00PM and will culminate on Sunday, April 10th with a 3:00 PM concert held at the new Perkiomen Valley Middle School West.

Audition Requirements

Members of GPHO are selected through a live* audition and only those students who demonstrate a high degree of proficiency on their instrument are invited to participate in the orchestra. It is generally expected that members of GPHO study privately and have had prior orchestra and/or band experience through participation in their school's music programs.

During the audition, each student is expected to play, from memory, any major or minor scale through four sharps or flats in various articulation patterns. Students are also asked to play a prepared etude and orchestral excerpt. The orchestral excerpt will be mailed to students upon receipt of the GPHO application. Orchestra seating placement will be determined by the audition.

Students wishing to participate in GPHO must submit the enclosed application by November 1, 2004. Auditions will take place on December 4 and 5, 2004 at the Community Music School. Auditions are scheduled as applications are received. Therefore, the sooner the application is received, the more time students will have to prepare the audition music.

*In cases of extreme distance and/or personal conflicts, a tape (not CD) may be sent to Community Music School. Please call before doing so.

Concerto Soloist Audition Requirements

Each year, GPHO showcases one exceptional student as a soloist with the orchestra. The concerto soloist also receives a $200 cash prize. To be considered for this honor, interested students must give notice on the GPHO application. For the concerto audition, students may select one movement from any concerto of the standard orchestral repertoire. The audition committee will notify the student upon receipt of the application if their concerto selection is acceptable. If a student's selection is deemed inappropriate on the basis of its level of difficulty, or the orchestra's inability to accommodate the piece, an alternate selection will be suggested. Students will be expected to perform, from memory, their chosen concerto movement in addition to the standard audition requirements listed above.

About the Conductor

Ian Shafer, a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, is a member of the faculty at Community Music School where he teaches oboe and is the Coordinator of the Music Theory Department. He is also a regular faculty member of the Community Music School's Crescendo Chamber Music Camp. Mr. Shafer also teaches oboe and beginning piano at Suburban Music School in Media and is active around the region as a chamber music coach. As a composer, Mr. Shafer has had compositions premiered by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Florida Woodwind Quintet, the Oberlin Wind Ensemble, and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. He is the former assistant conductor of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra. He has studied composition in Vienna, Austria with Richard Hoffman, specializing in the music of Arnold Schoenberg. Along with his conducting and composition, Mr. Shafer is a freelance oboist in the Philadelphia area.

FESTIVAL LOCATION:

Perkiomen Valley Middle School West
220 Big Road
Zieglerville, PA

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:

Friday, April 8, 2005