Dorian Band Festival

Please reference our  2025 festival schedule.

DBF Festival Schedule 2025

Click the tab below to find the packing list. If you are staying overnight on campus – please be sure to bring a sleeping bag and pillow.

DBF Packing List

Use the following map of campus to find the Center for Faith and Life (main concert hall), Jenson-Noble Hall of Music,, Dahl Centennial Union, as well as parking.

Additionally, you’ll be able to use the Jenson-Noble Hall of Music map to locate lessons, auditions, sectionals, and rehearsals for Symphonic Band and the Smaller Massed Band.

Campus / Jenson-Noble Map

Dorian Band Festival Audition Requirements 2025

• Mass Band: No Video Audition Requirement. Selection is based on the teacher nomination form. 
• NEW Smaller Mass Band: No Video Audition Requirement. Selection is based on the teacher nomination form.
• Symphonic Band: Video Audition Required
  • Piccolo, flute, clarinet, oboe, all saxophones, bassoon, trumpet, french horn, trombone, euphonium TC, euphonium BC, tuba, double bass (acoustic, upright).
    • Video Audition will include: 
      • A 90 second – 2 minute recording of a solo or etude that showcases both lyrical and technical ability of the student. The passage can be no longer than two minutes.
      • A chromatic scale featuring the student’s full range on their instrument
      • If accepted into the Symphonic Band, we will assign you to a part and the appropriate music will be shared with teachers. From there, an in-person audition on the Sunday of the festival will take place for chair placement. In the case of smaller numbers in a section, the in-person chair placement audition element may be eliminated for certain instruments.
  • Percussion
    • Video Audition will include: 
      • Submit two recordings, each one 90 seconds – 2 minutes. One should feature a solo or etude on a keyboard instrument, and the other a solo or etude on a battery instrument. No scales are necessary.
      • Additionally, please answer the following questions in your video submission, or send a separate email with the answers to these questions: Do you have any piano experience?  If so, how many years? What instrument do you play the most in band (mallets, battery, auxiliary etc.) What solos have you recently performed?
      • There will be no in-person audition element for percussion. 
• Jazz Band: Video Audition Required
  • • Video Audition will include:
      • Play the jazz excerpts specified for the instrument: saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar, piano, bass, drum-set. AUDITION EXCERPTS FOUND HERE. 
      • A chromatic scale from the lowest to the highest note that the student can play comfortably. The tempo should be quarter note = 140 BPM, played all slurred ascending and all tongued descending.
      • (Optional) Improvise on a jazz standard or a blues tune of the student’s choice. The improvisation may be accompanied by a play-along recording. Play first the melody and then take two choruses. 

Jazz Band Audition Excerpts 2025