Competitions

Each student may compete in up to three competitions:

  1. the high school or college solo competition,
  2. high horn or low horn mock orchestral auditions, and/or
  3. the quartet competition.

Competitors must be registered for the workshop and pay competition fees by February 25.

If there is interest, there may also be a horn choir competition.

In addition to workshop registration fees, competition fees are $10 per individual competition. For the quartet competition, the fee is $20 per quartet. All four quartet members must individually pay their $5 portion of the competition fee.

Common rules for all competitions

Competing students must not have performed professionally under full-time contract, or have been previously offered such employment by virtue of winning a full-time professional audition.

The judges reserve the right not to choose a winner, should the quality of performances merit. The winners of each competition will be offered the opportunity to perform or be recognized at the Final Concert on Sunday, March 13.

Students may stand or sit to perform. Students are not required to perform from memory. However, students using music must perform from legal printed copies: no photocopies or scanned copies of music are permitted. Students need not supply judges with score copies.

The first rounds are closed to the public, but subsequent rounds will be open for public viewing.

High School Solo Competition

Eligibility

Students entering this competition must be currently enrolled in high school (grades 9–12) or in a home-schooling program and younger than 19 years old on March 11, 2016.

Rules

Each entrant must be accompanied by a pianist. Those who need to use a workshop pianist should arrange this in advance by emailing Leslie Norton, or else bring a pianist.

Approximate times of performance will be communicated by e-mail to entrants in early March.

Parents or guardians may sit in the room during their student’s performance, but may not stay for the performances of other students. The general public will not be invited to observe this competition.

Repertoire

First movement of a standard concerto by the following composers: Mozart, Franz Strauss, Richard Strauss, Glière, or Jacob; or the Dukas Villanelle.

College Solo Competition

Eligibility

Students entering this competition must be enrolled at a college or university as undergraduate or graduate students, and must not currently hold a teaching position at a college or university (graduate assitantships excepted).

Rules

The first round of the competition is unaccompanied. Auditions slots will be assigned by email in early March and will take place the morning of Friday, March 11, 2016. Performers advancing to the second round will be assigned an accompanist. Final round time TBD.

Finalists will be accompanied by a staff pianist, but competitors may bring their own accompanist if desired.

Special Award: the best preliminary round performer of the Michael Rose -copia will be awarded $100 and will perform the piece on the final concert.

Choose one work for each round from the following lists.

Round One Repertoire

  • Michael Alec Rose. -copia. (This work was commissioned for the 2016 Southeast Horn Workshop and composed by Blair School Composer Michael Rose. It may be downloaded free of charge.)
  • Malcolm Arnold. Fantasy.
  • Verne Reynolds. Etude 3, 6, or 18 from 48 Etudes.
  • Jeff Agrell. Romp.

Round Two Repertoire

  • Paul Dukas. Villanelle.
  • Robert Schumann. Adagio and Allegro.
  • The first movement of any standard concerto.

Mock Orchestral Auditions

Eligibility

Students entering this competition must satisfy the requirements for either the high school or college solo competition.

Rules

The first round audition slots will be assigned via e-mail in early March and will take place the morning of Friday, March 11. Final round time TBD.

During the audition, students will conform to the excerpted parts available on the stand, which will be taken directly from the orchestral parts for the indicated works.

In the first round, the performers will be separated from the judges by a screen.

Each entrant should prepare all of the excerpts from either the high horn or low horn audition list.

High Horn Repertoire

Ludwig van Beethoven. Symphony No. 6, Op. 68.
Mvt. 3, Allegro, mm. 132–161 (50–77 after A), Horn 1.
Anton Bruckner. Symphony No. 4.
Mvt. 1, Bewegt, nicht zu schnell, mm. 1–51 (beginning to A), Horn 1.
César Franck. Symphony in D minor.
Mvt. 2, Allegretto, mm. 29–48 (9 before B to C), Horn 1.
Gustav Mahler. Symphony No. 5.
Mvt. 3, Scherzo: Kräftig, nicht zu schnell, mm. 764–end, Horn 1 (different from the Obligato part).
Félix Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 3.
Mvt. 2, Vivace non troppo, 16 mm. after A to B, Horn 3.
Corrected 3 February 2016.
Richard Wagner. Götterdämmerung.
Act 1, Short Call from “Siegfried’s Rhine Journey,” Vivace, Horn 1.

Low Horn Repertoire

Ludwig van Beethoven. Symphony No. 3, Op. 55.
Mvt. 3, Trio: Allegro vivace, mm. 169–202, Horn 2.
Ludwig van Beethoven. Symphony No. 9, Op. 125.
Mvt. 3, Adagio molto e cantabile, mm. 83–121, Horn 4.
Gustav Mahler. Symphony No. 3.
Mvt. 1, rehearsal 55 to rehearsal 57, Horn 4.
Corrected 8 March 2016.
Félix Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 3.
Mvt. 2, mm. 183–229, Horn 4.
Dmitri Shostakovich. Symphony No. 5, Op. 47.
Mvt. 1, Moderato, rehearsal 17 to rehearsal 21, Horn 4.
Richard Strauss, Don Quixote, Op. 35.
Variation 7, ein wenig ruhiger als vorher, rehearsal 57 to 5 after 58, Horn 2.

Quartet Competition

Eligibility

Students entering this competition must be enrolled at a college or university as undergraduate or graduate students, and must not currently hold a teaching position at a college or university (graduate assistantships excepted). All four performers in the quartet must register for the workshop and individually pay the competition fee.

Rules

The first round audition slots will be assigned via e-mail in early March and will take place TBD.

Each quartet must supply the judges with two photocopied scores of each piece performed.

Repertoire

Each quartet may prepare no more than 12 minutes of music, including changing time between movements and pieces. Quartets will be stopped after 12 minutes, and each audition slot will take up no more than 15 minutes. Transcriptions are acceptable repertoire.

Horn Choir Competition

If enough interest is expressed in a horn choir competition, hosts of the workshop would enthusiastically make that happen.