Woodwinds & Brass

Marching Illini auditions for the 2025 season are now open.

audition process

Prospective students interested in joining the Marching Illini Woodwinds and Brass sections must complete a two-part audition process.  The first round is a playing and marching audition.  If you are a music major and you have auditioned for the School of Music and you wish to join the Marching Illini, you must submit a separate audition for the Marching Illini. All playing auditions begin in January and run through May.

Current Woodwind & Brass students who were in the Marching Illini this past fall do not need to submit a video audition if they are participating in an instrumental ensemble this spring.

Instructions For Submitting A Marching Illini Video Audition

  • Create your audition video FIRST – be sure you can upload it to the audition platform OR if you have multiple videos, edit them and submit your video audition in 1 link either through YouTube
  • Submit our on-line audition registration form
  • Upload a video in the audition form OR copy a link to your video in the field provided – if you submitted the audition registration form already without your video audition, send Professor Houser (bhouser2@illinois.edu) an email with a link to your audition video
  • Submit the audition registration form

Audition Requirements for Woodwinds and Brass

  • Introduce yourself, include your first and last name, your age, where you are from, and what year in school you will be in the fall
  • Provide two one octave major scales of your choice – ascending and descending
  • Chromatic scale – lowest note to highest note ascending only to demonstrate your range
  • Prepare a solo or etude that is three-four minutes in length which demonstrates your technical and lyrical abilities (this can be one piece of music or segments from multiple pieces or etudes).
  • Marching portion – submit a video of you marching a 16 count box drill while playing an F concert – low mark time for 8 counts, forward march 16, right flank 16 counts, slide for 16, backwards 16, slide for 16 and halt | Marching Video Example
  • You may audition on your concert or marching instrument for this round – f horn in place of a mellophone, flute instead of piccolo, etc
  • If you want to audition for multiple sections, you need to submit a video for each section you want to audition for
  • Watch this video about The Audition Process
  • Check out this sample Audition Video
  • Once you record your audition video, see the information below for submitting your Marching Illini Video Audition
  • Video submissions due on or before May 1 – all notifications will be sent out shortly after May 1