How to Audition

Auditions for Evergreen Philharmonic are due by February 14, 2025 @ 11PM. Auditions are open to all woodwind, brass, percussion, and string players who will be in grades 9-12 in the 2025-2026 school year and attending a high school in the Issaquah School District. Homeschool students in those grades (who live within the district) are also invited to audition. You will make a video of your excerpts, post them to YouTube (you can set the privacy settings so they are not public) and e-mail those video links to me at evergreenauditions@gmail.com along with the other information contained in the instructions below. Other video links are acceptable as long as you make sure the videos are viewable with the link.

The required excerpts change from year to year (scales remain the same). Please see the link on each page for your instrument group (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion). When recording an audition, it is not necessary to record all the excerpts at the same time. Players may record multiple full track takes (no splicing of the individual take), choose the best one and then submit them as individual tracks or put all tracks together as a movie. Any splicing of individual takes will result in disqualification.

• You must be visible in the frame of the video, including both hands.  

• Each excerpt should be played in one take, but you may do a separate video for each excerpt.   

• Announce your piece for the solo excerpt (this only applies to string/piano auditions). Pianists should use the harp audition material and also announce a 2-3 minute excerpt for repertoire of your choice.

• Any splicing of individual tracks with result in disqualification. You may put all excerpts (tracks) together in one video. 

• Your YouTube video should be marked “unlisted” if you do not want it public. DO NOT mark it private as I will not be able to access your video, even with the link.\

• Complete this google form. This form will include all information below. Please also submit the following information to the evergreenauditions@gmail.com address.

• The body of your e-mail submission should contain:

  1. your name 

  2. instrument 

  3. current grade 

  4. current school 

  5. If you are studying privately, include the name of your teacher. 

  6. your video link(s) 

  7. Upon e-mail submission, you should receive an automatic reply from the evergreenauditions@gmail.com address with a "your audition has been received" message. If you get this e-mail, your submission has been successfully recorded for review after the due date. If you do not get this autoreply, please check the address you sent it to. A common mistake is omitting the "s" at the end of evergreenauditions when typing the address. 

When considering submitting an audition for Evergreen, please understand the time commitment involved.  Evergreen Philharmonic performs five to eight times each year. Friday afternoon rehearsals are required.

High school schedules may be selected prior to the audition due date. If you will be new to the group, you should sign up for the non-audition orchestra (or your current group if a member of a high school group) and put Evergreen as your alternate class. If you have a successful audition, I will notify you as well as the counseling center to adjust your schedule accordingly. 

Results will be posted on this website. This may take several weeks, depending on the number of auditions received.

If you are a string player heading to Issaquah High School, you may submit ONE audition that will put you in consideration for BOTH Evergreen and Chamber Strings. ALL excerpts are required for both Chamber and Evergreen. If you are heading to Skyline or Liberty, you must submit separately to those chamber groups according to their instructions, which may differ from those of Evergreen.

Questions may be directed to Ms. Leah Weitzsacker @ weitzsackerl@issaquah.wednet.edu.