Conductor:
Music Program Head • Director of Orchestras • Associate Director for Outreach and Professor, Tuba and Music Technology
Yutaka.Kono@uvm.edu (802) 656-7767Orchestra, music technology, conducting
Students who play in the orchestra major in a variety of different subjects. This year, students in the orchestra are majoring in music, psychology, computer science, foreign languages, history, elementary education, art, natural resources, and many other disciplines. The orchestra performs several times a year and plays a diverse repertoire of baroque, classical, romantic, and twentieth-century music.
Rehearsal: Tuesday Evenings, 7:00-9:30 PM
Concert: November 15, 4:00 PM and 7:30 PM
Please note there will be two performances on the same concert date.
Each spring, we also hold a concerto competition, providing UVM students with the opportunity to perform a solo with the orchestra.
View Concerto/Aria Competition Information
Fall 2025 Auditions
Prepare to perform:
Solo of your choice that represents your current level
E-flat and A major scales (concert pitch) at the tempo and the number of octaves that represent your current level
Sight-Reading
To be considered for the 1st violin section, prepare this orchestra excerpt: Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6, mvt. III (PDF).
Please use the following link to sign up for your audition time:
If you are unable to sign up through the link, please contact Dr. Kono to schedule an audition time.
Students who cannot audition at the available times are welcome to audition later if any vacant positions remain.
Faculty, staff, and community members are also welcome to audition, although UVM students are given priority. Most woodwind, brass, and percussion positions are filled by students, while the string sections mainly consist of students with a few community members. Community members interested in playing in the woodwinds, brass, or percussion sections are contacted after the student auditions are finished and are informed of any vacant positions. Community members who play strings only need to audition once. High school students interested in joining must be members of the school ensemble and youth orchestra.
Past Concerts
Spring 2025 Auditions
New students who wish to join the orchestra in spring should sign up for an audition during the first week of class in January.
Faculty, staff, and community members are also welcome to audition, although students are given priority. Most woodwind, brass, and percussion positions are filled by students, while the string sections consist primarily of students with a few community members. Community members interested in playing in the woodwinds, brass, or percussion sections are contacted after the student auditions are complete and informed of any vacant positions. Community members who play strings only need to audition once. High school students interested in joining must be members of the school ensemble and youth orchestra.
Spring 2025 guest conductor: Mark Alpízar, Mark.Alpizar@uvm.edu
Spring 2024 Concert Schedule
Saturday, April 13, 4 PM and 7:30 PM (two performances)
- “From Earth to the Stars”
Louise Farrenc
Overture No. 1 in E minor - TBD: Concerto Competition Winner
- Jean Sibelius
Spring Song - Star Wars Suite, by John Williams
I.Main Title
II. Princess Leia’s Theme
III. The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)
IV. Yoda’s Theme
V. Throne Room & End Title
Fall 2023 Concert Schedule
Saturday, November 11, 4 PM and 7:30 PM
- “Past, Present, and Future”
- Franz von Suppé
Poet and Peasant Overture - Ceécile Chaminade
Callirhoë Suite - Charles Gounod
Funeral March of Marionette - Philip Herbert
Towards Renewal - Michael Giacchino
Star Trek: Into Darkness
2022-2023 Concert Schedule
Saturday April 15, 7:30 PM
- Morton Gould, American Salute
- Concerto, TBA
- Thelonious Monk/Williams/Hanighen/Patricia Julien, ‘Round Midnight
- Musella, Sweet Dreams, Elizabeth Lee
- Holst, Mars and Jupiter from The Planets
Saturday, November 12, 7:30 PM
- Franz Schubert: Rosamunde Overture
- Drew Sennett: TBA (World Premiere)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Movements from the Nutcracker
- Quinn Mason: Heroic Overture
- Camille Saint-Saëns: Danse Bacchanale
2020-2021 Concert Schedule
Saturday, November 13, 7:30 PM
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Coriolan Overture
- Édouard Lalo: Cello Concerto, mvt. III. Simon Webber, soloist
- Jessie Montgomery: Soul Force
- Modest Mussorgsky: Night on a Bald Mountain
- Arturo Márquez: Danzon No. 2
Saturday, April 20, 2021, 7:00PM
- Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody from “Appalachian Spring”
- Bizet: Jeux dEnfants
- Faure: Pavane
- Krommer: Concerto for 2 Clarinets No. 1, op. 35. Soloists: Ginny Churchill and Bailey Brown (Winners of Concerto Competition)
December 2020
Saturday, November 7, 2020, 7:00PM
- Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1
- Johannes Brahms: Serenade No. 2
April 2020
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, The Great Gate of Kiev
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 7:30 PM
- Elizabeth Raum: Fanfare Overture (2002)
- Gioacchino Rossini: La Gazza Ladra (1817)
- Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff: Fantasia on Serbian Themes, op. 6 (1867)
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Danse nègre, op. 35, no. 4 (1898)
- Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet (1881)
Special guest actors, Juls Sundberg and Julia Sioss will perform the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
Saturday, April 4, 2020, 7:30 PM
- Beethoven: Coriolan Overture
- Kim Diehnelt: Striadica: A Symphonic Passage
- Sibelius: Spring Song
- Mussorgsky/Tushmalov: Pictures at an Exhibition
- Franz Krommer: Concerto for Two Clarinets, No. 1, Op. 35
featuring Concerto Competition winners Bailey Brown and Ginny Churchill
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 7:30 PM
- Elizabeth Raum: Fanfare Overture (2002)
- Gioacchino Rossini: La Gazza Ladra (1817)
- Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff: Fantasia on Serbian Themes, op. 6 (1867)
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Danse nègre, op. 35, no. 4 (1898)
- Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet (1881)
Special guest actors, Juls Sundberg and Julia Sioss will perform the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
Saturday, April 13, 2019, 7:30 PM
- Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, IV and V
- Bizet: Overture to L'Arlesienne
- Florence Price: Symphony No. 1, mvt. I
- Badelt/Ricketts: Pirates of the Caribbean
- Doppler: Fantasie Pastorale Hongroise (ft. concerto competition winner Kylie Elliott, flute)
Saturday, November 10, 2018, 7:30 PM
- Beethoven: Ruins of Athens Overture
- Gwyneth Walker: Open the Door
- Jennifer Higdon: Soliloquy, cello: Prof. Emily Taubl
- Dvorak: Rondo, cello: Prof. Emily Taubl
- Stravinsky: Suite from Firebird (1919)
Saturday, April 14, 2018, 7:30 pm
- Symphony No. 5, Beethoven
- Piano Concerto No. 20, Mozart
- Swan Lake Suite, Tchaikovsky
- Dusk, Bryant
- Symphony No. 9, Dvorak
Saturday, November 11, 2017, 7:30 pm
- On Top of the World, Balmages
- The Nutcracker Suite, Tchaikovsky
- Procession to the Cathedral from Lohengrin, Wagner
- Capriccio Espagnol, Rimsky-Korsakov