Competitions

The 2025 Southeast Horn Workshop offers the following competitions:

  1. Solo competitions – high school school student, undergraduate student or graduate student levels
  2. Mock auditions – high horn or low horn
  3. Horn quartet competition
  4. Horn choir competition

In addition to workshop registration fees, competition fees are $10 for one individual competition and $30 per quartet for the horn quartet competition.

Common rules for competitions

  • Competitors 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.
  • Competitors may stand or sit to perform.
  • Competitors are not required to perform from memory. However, competitors must perform from legally acquired music.
  • The winner of each solo competition will be invited to play in a master class with a featured artist.
  • The judges reserve the right not to choose a winner, should the quality of performances merit. The winners of each competition will be recognized at the final concert on Sunday, March 16.

High School Solo Competition

Eligibility

Students entering this competition must be currently enrolled in middle or high school (grades 6–12) or in a home-schooling program, and younger than 19 years old on March 14, 2025.

Rules

  • The preliminary round will be performed unaccompanied, even for repertoire written with accompaniment. For the final round, piano accompaniment is required; an App State staff accompanist will be provided, if necessary.
  • 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.
  • Choose one work for each round from the following lists.

Repertoire

Preliminary round

  • Bernhard Krol, Laudatio.
  • Benjamin Horne, Stranger from the Wind.
  • Malcolm Arnold, Fantasy for Horn.

Final round

  • Cait Nishimura, Golden Hour.
  • Francis Poulenc, Élégie.
  • Franz Strauss, Horn Concerto, Op. 8, Mvt. 1.

College Solo Competition

Eligibility

Students entering this competition must be enrolled at a college or university as undergraduate students.

Rules

  • The preliminary round will be performed unaccompanied. For the final round, piano accompaniment is required, if applicable to the repertoire; an App State staff accompanist will be provided, if necessary.
  • Choose one work for each round from the following lists.

Repertoire

Preliminary round

  • Steven Winteregg, Blue Soliloquy.
  • Erika Raum, Confessions of Saint Augustine, Mvt. 1.
  • James Naigus, Primary Ignition.

Final round

  • Lydia Busler, Appalachia.
  • Sigurd Berge, Horn-Lokk.
  • Gordon Jacob, Concerto for Horn and Strings, Mvt. 1.
  • Aliyah Danielle, Contemplations for horn and piano.

Graduate Solo Competition

Eligibility

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

Rules

  • The preliminary round will be performed unaccompanied, even for repertoire written with accompaniment. For the final round, piano accompaniment is required, if applicable to the repertoire; an App State staff accompanist will be provided, if necessary.
  • Choose one work for each round from the following lists.

Repertoire

Preliminary round

  • Gina Gillie, “Ditty for Jonathan” from Three Unaccompanied Pieces for Horn.
  • Olivier Messiaen, “Appel interstellaire” from Des Canyons aux étoiles….
  • Zsolt Nagy, Happy Blues.

Final round

  • Michael Haydn, Concerto for Horn in D major, Mvts. 1 and 2.
  • Hermann Neuling, Bagatelle.
  • James Beckel, The Glass Bead Game, Mvt. 1.

Mock Orchestral Auditions

Eligibility

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

Rules

  • Auditions will take place the evening of Friday, March 15.
  • During the audition, students will conform to the excerpted parts available on the stand, which will be taken directly from the parts for the indicated works. For study, excerpts can be found at Horn Excerpts, HornRep, The Horn Opera Project or OrchestraExcerpts.
  • 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.
  • The winners of this competition will be invited to play in a master class.

High Horn Repertoire

Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 7, Op. 92.
Mvt. 1, Vivace, mm. 84–101 (25 before [C]–[C]), Horn 1.
Leonard Bernstein, Overture to Candide.
Mm. 178–202, Horn 1.
Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 3, Op. 90.
Mvt. 3, Poco allegretto, mm. 98–110 ([F]–12 after [F]), Horn 1.
Joseph Willcox Jenkins, American Overture, Op. 13
Mm. 1–23, Horn 1.
Maurice Ravel, Pavane pour une infante défunte.
Opening solo, mm. 1–11, Horn 1.
Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, Op. 28.
Mm. 6–20, Horn 1.
Richard Wagner, Lohengrin.
Act III, Prelude. Beginning to m. 52 (3 mm. after [3]), Horn 1.

Low Horn Repertoire

Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, Op. 55.
Mvt. 3 Trio, mm. 171–202, Horn 2.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio.
Overture: mm. 136–151, Horn 2.
Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No. 9, Op. 95, “From the New World.”
Mvt. 4, [10]–[11], Horn 2.
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 1.
Mvt. 3, mm. 113–132 (4 after [13]–[15]), Horn 2.
Giacomo Puccini, Tosca.
Act III, mm. 1–17, (all parts are unison).
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5, Op. 47.
Mvt. 1, [17]–[21], Horn 4.
Richard Strauss, Don Quixote.
Variation 8, 6 mm. before [59]–8 mm. after [62], Horn  4.
Carl Maria von Weber, Der Freischutz Overture.
Mm. 9–25, Horn 4.

Quartet Competition

Eligibility

Full-time students not currently hold a teaching position at a college or university (graduate assistantships excepted) and avocational players may compete in the quartet competition.

Rules

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

Repertoire

Each quartet may prepare no more than 15 minutes of music, including changing time between movements and pieces. Any repertoire can be played and contrasting styles are encouraged.

Horn Choir Competition

Rules

  • The Horn Choir competition will be held in two rounds.
  • The first round will be a recording submission of musical selection(s) 12–15 minutes in length. Please email submissions to Dakota Corbliss by March 1. These submissions will be ranked by a panel of judges. Of these submissions, four groups will be selected to compete in the final round, which will be live and in-person at Appalachian State.
  • The final round must consist of work(s) at least 10 minutes in length, but not exceeding 15 minutes, including the time it takes between movements and setup, etc. The winning group will have the opportunity to perform on the final concert, Sunday, March 15!