Thank you for your interest in auditioning for the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras of Strathmore!

Each season, all musicians (returning and new) must audition for the MCYO Orchestras. Our auditions takes place in mid to late August (a week or two before MCPS school system resumes in fall). Registrations will go online in mid-June, and all audition requirement updates and new orchestral excerpts will be posted at that time.
– We take auditions from all “common” orchestral instruments. (Harp is included, but does NOT include piano or saxophone.)

  • Audition Results for 2022-23 Season:
    Notification of results for the auditions has been distributed on Acceptd’s message system. Please log in to: https://mcyo.getacceptd.com and view your audition results.

Please click here if you’d like to be informed of upcoming auditions.

Membership Eligibility
Please be sure that your child can meet our MCYO eligibility requirements.
Each orchestra rehearses weekly throughout the school year on Wednesday evenings (locations can be found here), and also receives regular sectional coaching by professional string, woodwind, brass, and percussion coaches.

  • MCYO strongly encourages its musicians to participate in their school music programs.  The daily ensemble experience greatly enhances our program.
  • MCYO requires that all musicians be taking weekly private lessons on their orchestra instrument.  It is essential that musicians receive this guidance throughout the entire season.
  • Each musician is assessed an annual tuition/membership fee. Need based scholarships are available for musicians to help pay for private lessons and/or MCYO membership fees.

Audition Requirement Checklist
All students will be assessed based on their performance of:

  • Prepared solo: This needs to be an ENTIRE piece or a movement (prepared in full!) from a sonata/concerto/etude. Musicians will only be asked to play sections from it (2-5 minutes depending on ensemble).
  • Orchestral excerpts
  • Scales: memorized (if required)
  • Sight reading (if required)

More detailed audition requirements can be found here.