Ready to Join Our Orchestra? Read our F.A.Q
The FSYO is open to all students 8-18 years of age from the Southern California Area. We suggest you have at least 2 years of experience playing your instrument.
Yes, you are required to be an active participant of your school’s music program. If your school does not have an instrumental music program or you are homeschooled, you are exempt from this requirement.
The FSYO meets for rehearsal at Saddleback College in FA 104 (the choral room) from 3 pm to 5 pm on most Sundays.
Concerts are held at the McKinney Theater at Saddleback College and typically occur in December/January and in May. Additional concerts may be scheduled in different venues. At the start of the season, you will receive a detailed summary of the concert calendar.
The FSYO’s program tuition is available online on our tuition page. Regardless of your financial background, FSYO in committed to provide needs-based scholarships to any student with a financial burden. You can learn more about our needs-based financial assistance on our tuition page.
As a performance and educational institution of high quality instruction, we hold all FSYO members to the highest degree of attendance to all rehearsals. If an absence is to be had, prior notification to one of the staff members is necessary. Failure to do so will not only hurt the standing of the member, but will hinder the quality of the FYSO’s performance.
For the 2023-2024 season, most auditions will be submitted via unlisted YouTube video. Anybody requesting a live audition or a percussion audition will be contacted after you submit your application. Our video submission guidelines are here.
Beyond preparing your excerpt and submitting the registration form, we will be contacting you with dates in June for your audition. Once you have accepted one of our dates, your audition will happen in the music room at Santa Ana Valley High School at 1801 S. Greenville St. in Santa Ana, CA 92704
Beyond preparing your audition materials and submitting the registration form, we will be contacting you with dates in June for your audition. Once you have accepted one of our dates, your audition will happen at the Tustin Music Center, 13721 Newport Ave #9, Tustin, CA 92780.
We understand auditions are difficult and nerve-wracking as we have all been there. In the videos, we are primarily looking for two main and simple qualities: does your music good? And are you able to grow and adapt as a musician? A missed passage will not doom your audition video, but we do expect all of our applicants to be properly prepared and ready to perform.
All audition videos should be 5-8 minutes in length and most videos have 3 parts to them: a lyrical solo, a technical solo, and the assigned excerpt. For more information, look at our auditions page here. It is important that the two selections you choose are contrasting so we are able to hear the range of your musical and technical capabilities.
We will consider: Rhythmic accuracy, tempo stability, intonation, tone quality, dynamic contrast, technique, note accuracy, musicality, expression, phrasing, and your ability to recover from mistakes. Furthermore, we will judge your overall strength as a candidate in relation to your overall preparation and appropriateness of the repertoire difficulty level.
What we will not consider: audio/video quality of the device you used to record, location of the recording, race, ethnicity, gender, other auditions you have taken, or any other non-musical factor. We do ask for as high of quality recording as too much distortion (like echo) from the device or the location of recording can mask some of your musicality.
Yes! However, make sure that the video is not only current but meets our requirements found here.
We will be taking harp and piano auditions on an individual basis. Submit your audition form found here and we will be contacting you for the audition.
Mostly no. You may add fades to the beginning and end of your video and trim the ends, but do not add anything extra like lighting effects, title cards, or subtitles. The video itself should be one continuous take 5-8 minutes in length without any splicing or cuts. If we suspect your video was edited beyond the stated exceptions or is enhanced in any shape, it will be immediately disqualified.
No. As long as you meet the basic requirements for video recording found here, you can audition. A friend holding a cell phone camera is as good as a professional camera set-up for your auditions.
If you are a public or private school student who uses a school instrument and cannot take it home beyond the school year, attempt to negotiate with your director for access to your instrument during the summer. If this fails, please contact [email protected] and I will fight on your behalf.
If this fails or you have other challenges preventing you from having an instrument for your audition, please contact me and we will find a solution.
No. Understand that playing your solos by memory will not affect our decision towards your audition.
It is customary to wear nice dress clothes which will not hinder your ability to perform. Although we are not judging on what you wear, first impressions always make a lasting impact on any interaction, so make it count. If you need more specifics, think “picture day” at a school or a formal dinner with family.
We will be sending all acceptance letters from mid-July to August. With your acceptance letters, we will also be giving instructions about a mandatory parent meeting and links to the potential repertoire.
