The CSU Pueblo Festival of Winds has continued to grow in size and participation from the very beginning. Starting with just one honor band in 2009, the Festival has expanded to include four honor bands by its sixth year, and over the years has continued to grow and improve, with more than 360 high school students representing high schools across Colorado and neighboring states.

The philosophy of the festival is for all students to receive the chance to be a part of an honor band. All schools that have students submit auditions will be represented at the festival. Students are given suggested material to audition with. Once auditions are received, those students are placed in one of the four ensembles.

This Festival of Winds enriches the experience for all students through small group rehearsals and masterclasses with our CSU Pueblo applied faculty, and all participants enjoy a weekend concert series. Past performances have included the Fountain Creek Brass Band, the United States Air Force Academy Band, a CSU Pueblo Faculty Recital, and performances by the University Wind Ensemble.

Each year, the Festival of Winds also brings in notable national and international guest clinicians to conduct each of the honor bands.

Audition Requirements

Participants are asked to submit recordings in order for us to accurately place the students in the appropriate ensemble. Recordings can be video or just audio. The recording does not need to be one take, it may be split up into components outlined below. Please clearly announce your name and school at the beginning of each recording you send. Please trim dead space from recordings, this aids our adjudication process immensely!

Audition submissions are due Wed, Dec 3rd

Recorded auditions must include both etudes and scales.

Etude Suggestions

1. Experienced: All-State Etudes
2. Intermediate: First 8 bars of the All-State etudes
3. Developing: Please choose a OR b
   1. Suggested etudes (can be found in suggested etudes folder on Festival of Winds page)
   2. Solo/etudes of choice. (Pdfs of music must be submitted with audition)

For All State and Etude Information and Suggested Developing Audition Material, please click the link below.

music/festivals/festival-of-winds/audition-materials

Scales

Woodwinds/Brass

• two-octave chromatic scale
  • starting on a note of your choice
  • In quarter notes no slower than 120 bpm, ascending and descending.
• two different two-octave major scales of your choice
  • In quarter notes no slower than 180 bpm, ascending and descending

Percussion

• two different two-octave major scales of your choice
  • In quarter notes no slower than 180 bpm, ascending and descending

The scale tempos should be taken as suggestions, it is better to be a little slower and accurate with great tone and control than ‘at tempo’ but with errors.

Recording Submission

Submissions are due Dec.3rd. Submit links of your video or audio file(s) via this Google form https://forms.gle/qqacCRLXCReLdzxC6.

• Uploading your recording(s) to a file sharing service (such as Google Drive) and copying the link via “sharing”. Make sure the sharing settings are set to “general access” or “anyone with the link can view” and “viewer” permission.
• OR: Uploading video(s) to YouTube. Set video privacy to “unlisted” and copy the link. Do not set visibility to “private”.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us!