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Due to the impending departure of Sergeant First Class Jason Ham, the West Point Band announces an immediate vacancy for Euphonium. Here are the important dates:

Packets must be RECEIVED BY (not postmarked): December 2nd, 2015

Final Round will be: February 8th, 2016.

click here for the flyer and excerpts: http://www.usma.edu/band/SitePages/Vacancies.aspx

Based off the recorded round and resumes, 6+ qualified candidates will be inivted to audition live at West Point for the final round at the government's expense.

You'll notcie on the flyer it mentions proficiency on trombone in the marching band as a requirement in the final round. To clarify: if you are offered the job, the expectation of performing trombone in the marching band would be rather limited. It is only added as a contingency for extenuating circumstances. The West Point Band is somewhat smaller than other premeir military bands and to account for occasional absenses, we must ask members of the band to double where need be. Hence the wording "basic proficiency." As such, you will be expected to perform a few short basic march excerpts on trombone if you are invited to the final round. Nothing too crazy.

As for SFC Ham: he has decided to enter into full time ministry as a pastor in nearby Warwick, NY. I'd like to publicly thank him personally for everything he's done for me and the West Point Band. We wish him nothing but the best in this new adventure for him and his family. He will be greatly missed but at least he's sticking around close by.

Any questions regarding the audition should be directed to myself at philip.broome@usma.edu" target="_blank

Thanks everyone and good luck! West Point is incredible place to work with great musicians and even better people. I hope you consider sending in a tape!

My best,

-Phil

Folks,

We have just a little over two weeks left to submit your tapes for our euphonium audition. Just wanted to send out a friendly reminder to have your packets/tapes in to us by December 2nd, NOT POSTMARKED!!

In the past, we have had a number of packets filter in weeks after the postmarked date which makes it very difficult for us to meet our deadlines. So, whatever you have to do to make sure it makes it here by december 2nd, please do that. That way we can notify finalists in a timely manner. Good luck everyone and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions: philip.broome@usma.edu" target="_blank There are no stupid questions, especially when it comes to enlistment qualifications, etc. Looking forward to hearing some great recordings!

My best,

-Phil

All,
Thank you to everyone who submitted a recording to the West Point euphonium audition. The panel had some difficult decisions and long debates narrowing down the 50 submissions to the eight chosen semi-finalists. Congratulations to those who advanced, we look forward to seeing you at the live rounds in February.
To those who have not been contacted yet, please know that many of you were very close to advancing. We know it can be frustrating to send a tape and not get any feedback, so if you would like some very brief comments and an idea of how your tape and resume were perceived by the panel, feel free to send me an email to keith.kile@usma.edu" target="_blank.

A couple of general notes about the recordings sent:
-The tapes that advanced were extremely good. Technical excerpts were clean and in time, lyrical excerpts were smooth and maturely phrased, and the quality of the recordings made them easy to listen to and easy to hear the great playing.
-The tapes that advanced were clearly well-prepared and well-thought-out, and showed an understanding of the repertoire and role of the part being performed.
-Solos were generally very well done and we enjoyed hearing your personalities come through. Thank you, all!

Pitfalls of tapes that did not advance:
-Festive Overture disqualified many tapes. Tapes that advanced had clean and even eighth notes, did not rush repeated notes, and established a clear tempo from the very beginning of the excerpt.
-Colonial Song gave candidates the chance to show smooth section playing and long ideas with few “impulses” or swelling of individual notes within a phrase. It also was the only opportunity in the excerpts to show ensemble solo playing at rehearsal 21.
-Candidates that advanced had very impressive recordings of Pineapple Poll and set a very high standard. Several candidates were pushed out of the advancing pile when this excerpt was compared back to back. Cleanliness on the opening is a given, but the tapes that stood out made it sound easy and didn’t have any notes that were ghosted or popping out. The second excerpt has some specific dynamic and phrase markings that were beautifully played on the best tapes.
-Stars and Stripes was surprisingly nearly every tape’s worst excerpt. We had several candidates we were excited to advance until we got to an unacceptable Stars and Stripes. The difficulty of this march comes from performing exciting and long phrases while paying very close attention to markings and rhythms all while maintaining a constant tempo. Anecdotally, we were just looking for a solid S&S, played in a great march style that sounds easy and perfect... simple, right??

A note on recording quality:
-We were pleased with most of the tape qualities. When submitting a tape keep in mind that the panel WANTS you to succeed, but a large part of that requires them to want to hear your recording. Tapes that constantly clip or peak, are so distant we can’t hear cleanliness, or that couldn’t accurately represent a good characteristic euphonium sound just couldn’t be advanced. There were too many really good tapes to spend lots of time inches from the monitor listening for cleanliness or sound quality.

Thank you again for all of the wonderful submissions, and again feel free to contact me at keith.kile@usma.edu" target="_blank for light individual comments or questions about the process we used.

-Keith

Just wanted to announce if you have not already heard, we have offered the job to Chris Leslie, doctoral student at the University of Georgia and a student of Dave Zerkel. We couldn't be happier to have such an incredible player on board for many years to come. Please join me in congratulating Chris.

Overall we were extremely happy with the level of playing both in the tape round and in the live round. There are some truly awesome euphonium players out there. Thanks again everyone for your submissions and especially to those who were invited to the live round. We enjoyed hearing all of you!

-Phil