High School Musicians Invited to Audition for Ohio Wesleyan Band Festival
The 48th annual Ohio Wesleyan University President’s High School Band Festival will be held Jan. 21, 2012, providing learning and scholarship opportunities for talented high school musicians from Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan. Auditions are under way now through December 15 for the program.
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- Area high school students are invited to tryout for the Ohio Wesleyan Band Festival on its Delaware, Ohio, campus.
Ohio Wesleyan’s High School Band Festival showcases an honors band, festival band, and composition seminar. Composition students will learn the basics of using the FINALE and Sibelius computer notation software and then collaborate to write an original work to be performed during the festival’s free community concert. Ohio Wesleyan’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Park Avenue Jazz Ensemble also will perform at the concert, held in Ohio Wesleyan’s renowned Gray Chapel.
“This is a great opportunity for high school students to get an insider’s look at Ohio Wesleyan – its facilities, faculty, and students,” said Timothy Roden, Ph.D., chair of OWU’s Department of Music. “The festival is appropriate for those who want to major in music as well as for those who enjoy making music but want to major in another academic discipline. Many current OWU students who perform with us major in areas such as chemistry, economics, and computer science. They enjoy the artistic expression and opportunities available in our liberal arts environment.”
High school students are invited to review the festival’s audition guidelines and upload their audition recordings online now through Dec. 15 at http://music.owu.edu/festival. Members of the Ohio Wesleyan music faculty will review all auditions and select festival participants. Accepted high school seniors interested in majoring in music also will be invited to audition on the evening of Jan. 20, 2012, for Ohio Wesleyan music merit scholarships. These scholarships range from half to full tuition.
The festival’s honors band will be led by Ohio Wesleyan professor Larry Griffin, D.M.A., a renowned trumpeter and conductor who strives to provide students with an exciting environment in which to learn the fundamentals of music performance. The festival band will be led by professor Richard Edwards, Ph.D., who coordinates music education and whose research interests include the neuroscience and philosophy of music education. The composition seminar will be led by Clint Needham, D.M., whose work was chosen recently from among 170 competitors to receive the 2011 international Barlow Prize.
