New Student Audition

Now Accepting New Student Auditions
2025-2026 Season
Fall Semester

General audition guidelines

  • Choose audition solos and scales that represent your current level of playing.
  • Audition music should be thoroughly prepared and mastered to the best of your ability.
  • Students should consult their private teacher or school music teacher for selection and preparation of appropriate audition music.
  • You may audition in-person on select dates or submit a video (see below for how to apply)

For more specific audition guidelines for your instrument follow these links:

Requirements to join YOBC

School Music Program Participation Requirement
All students must participate in their school instrumental music program as available.

Private Lesson Requirement
YOBC students must take private lessons. Elementary students who play a band instrument (ie: not a string instrument) are excluded from the private lesson requirement for their first year of membership in YOBC. However, we strongly recommend that all students take private lessons to support their overall musical progress.

Students who are not taking private lessons are allowed to audition for YOBC, however, once accepted those who are required to do so must begin private lessons prior to attending rehearsals in YOBC.

Conduct Requirement
YOBC requires students to treat their conductors, ensemble liaisons, and fellow musicians with respect. Students who repeatedly engage in disruptive or disrespectful behavior may be dismissed and required to forfeit YOBC membership and tuition.

Rehearsals
Core ensembles rehearse weekly on Sunday afternoons during the months of September-November and January-April at the Bucks County Community College, Newtown Campus. Most chamber groups rehearse weekly; string sectionals occur on a rotating basis for some ensembles.

2025-2026 Season Dates

Fall Semester
First Rehearsal: Sunday, September 7, 2025
Concert date is based on which ensembles you are placed in.
Concerts: Saturday, November 22, 2025, or Sunday, November 23, 2025

Spring Semester
First Rehearsal: Sunday, Early January 11, 2026
Concert date is based on which ensembles you are placed in.
Concerts: Saturday April 18, 2026, or Sunday, April 19, 2026

When and how to audition for YOBC

There are two ways to audition for YOBC – by submitting an audition video online or by attending in-person auditions. You can submit a recorded audition video at any time. In-person auditions are held in May for the Fall semester that begins in September.


To Audition Online
With a recorded video audition, you can audition to join YOBC at any time.

To audition online, you will record a video of your audition and then upload it to YouTube or a cloud drive service such as Google Drive, One Drive, or iCloud. You will also need to upload a PDF or JPG of the printed music you auditioned with. Percussionists: please provide the printed music for your snare drum solo. When create the URLs to share the files, remember to set the permission to “anyone with this link can view this file”.

In the audition application you will provide the URLs of the video and printed music that you uploaded.

Please review the requirements of an audition video
Instructions on how to submit your video can be found here.

To be considered for the next Fall Semester, please submit your audition between April 1st and June 1st to be in the first round of ensemble placements or by July 15th for the second round of placements.

Auditions received at other times will be reviewed and given an ensemble placement based on availability. Video auditions received after the 2nd week of a semester are considered for the next semester.
 

To Audition In-Person
In-person auditions are held on May 17th and 18th, 2025 for the Fall 2025 semester.
Auditions are held at the Music & Multimedia building at the Newtown campus of the Bucks County Community College.

Ready to audition for YOBC?

Click here to complete an audition application

At the end of the application you will indicate if you want to audition in-person or are ready to submit a video audition.
 
If you are auditioning online you need to have the URLs of your uploaded video and printed music ready to provide.
 

Questions?

Email office@yobc.org or phone 267-225-1908.

Audition Application

Please complete all fields. If you have any trouble with the form, contact office@yobc.org



 
While YOBC can accommodate some special requests, not all areas of need can be supported. Please tell us about your child's special need:

YOBC communicates via email and will notify you about your audition this way. Please provide an email address that is regularly monitored. After it is reviewed, a copy of this application will be emailed to this address.



About student email and cellphone information

Providing your student's email or cellphone number helps us communicate with your student, especially the older students.  

It is YOBC’s policy to copy the Primary Contact Parent on any emails we send to a student.

If you are using a school email instead of a general email (eg., gmail, outlook, icloud) for your student, make sure that the school lets student accounts accept messages from outside the district.





If your private teacher's name did not come up in the previous field, please add new teacher here. Otherwise, leave this field blank.


What year did you start taking private lessons? (If you just started, or have not yet started lessons, please put the current year.)


If you attend private school or are homeschooled, please indicate. Indicate specific school below.

Indicate here if Homeschooled


What year do you anticipate graduating from high school? Class of:


Name of school instrumental music teacher


YOBC requires students to participate in their school instrumental music program, where one exists. Please let us know which music program you participate in.


Where did you learn about YOBC? (i.e., school teacher, private teacher, newspaper, website, other)


Please describe your playing experience.


YOBC requires participation in school instrumental music programs (where one exists). Participation will be verified should you be placed in a YOBC ensemble. Check here to authorize YOBC to verify school participation.


You can submit an online video audition at any time. If you prefer, in-person auditions are also available.

 

TO AUDITION IN PERSON.
In-person auditions are held in the music building of the Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA campus.

You can expect the entire process from check-in, to warm-up, to audition to take up to an hour. The audition itself is no longer than 15 minutes. In early May you will receive an email of a more specific time slot that you are assigned to audition.

In-person auditions are on May 17th(Sat) and 18th(Sun), 2025 between 9a and 3p.

To audition in-person, please indicate your availability:

   

 

TO AUDITION ONLINE.
You can submit an online audition at any time. Please submit your audition by June 1st to be considered in the first round of ensemble placements or by July 15th for the second round of placements. Auditions received at other times will be reviewed and given an ensemble placement based on availability.

To audition online, you need to record a video of your audition and then upload it to YouTube or a cloud drive service such as Google Drive, One Drive, or iCloud. You will also need to provide a PDF or JPG of the printed music you auditioned with. Instructions are below. Percussionists: please upload the printed music for your snare drum solo.

Requirements of an audition video

How to upload a video and printed music to YouTube and/or a cloud drive service

Please provide here the URLs for your uploaded audition video and printed music. Remember to set the permissions to "anyone with this link can view this file".

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