UNC Symphony Orchestra
The Ensemble
The UNC Symphony Orchestra is a 100-member ensemble which rehearses Monday and Wednesday evenings throughout the academic year and performs two major concerts each semester. Enrollment is open by audition to anyone -- music majors, non-majors, graduate students, and community members.
Led by its Music Director and Conductor, Tonu Kalam, the orchestra often presents faculty and student musicians as concerto soloists and has also collaborated with UNC opera and choral ensembles, including a full semi-staged production of Mozart's Così fan tutte and a complete Brahms German Requiem.
Major standard orchestral works performed in past years have included Mahler's Symphony No. 1, Stravinsky's Petrushka, Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 9, Brahms' Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 4, Tchaikovsky's Symphonies Nos. 2, 3 and 5, Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy, Ravel's Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé, Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade, Dvořák's Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9, Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6, Elgar's "Enigma" Variations, Saint-Saëns' "Organ" Symphony, Gershwin's An American in Paris, and Strauss' Death and Transfiguration.
The UNCSO has also performed numerous works by significant twentieth- and twenty-first-century composers, including Barber, Copland, Bernstein, Hindemith, Prokofiev, Milhaud, Britten, Walton, Christopher Rouse, Michael Torke, Arvo Pärt, Jennifer Higdon, Peter Lieberson, Einojuhani Rautavaara, John Harbison, Christopher Theofanidis, John Corigliano, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Lowell Liebermann, and Robert Moran.
Audition Information
Auditions for the UNC Symphony Orchestra will be held beginning Monday of the first week of classes in August. Detailed information will be posted on the Music Department bulletin boards in the Kenan Music Building and Hill Hall. Returning orchestra members must reaudition each year for seating.
The string audition will consist of two brief solos of your choice -- one slow/melodic, one fast/technical -- and a three-octave scale. Wind/brass/percussion audition requirements are posted online at www.uncbands.org.
Everyone interested in the orchestra must attend the first meeting on Wednesday, August 26 at 7:00 pm in Kenan Music Building Room 1201, even if you have not yet auditioned.
Audition Schedules
Wind/brass/percussion players must sign up for an audition time online by following the links at www.uncbands.org.
String players must sign up for an audition time online by clicking the following link:
STRING AUDITION SCHEDULE
Player Information Form
Prior to auditioning, all prospective and returning orchestra members must fill out and submit the Player Information Form accessed by clicking the following link:
If you have any questions or desire more information about the orchestra program, please email Prof. Kalam at kalam@mindspring.com.