Contact Information
Ella Sneltjes
Associate Director of Music Outreach and Marketing
Email: ella.sneltjes@luther.edu
or dorian@luther.edu
Phone: 563-387-1389
Dorian Band Festival
March 2-3, 2025
Calling all band directors! Each year we invite band directors to nominate high school band students to attend the Dorian Band Festival. Approximately 500 students are typically accepted to participate in the festival where students are placed in one of four bands: 9/10 Festival Mass Band, 11/12 Festival Mass Band, the select Festival Symphonic Band, as well as the select Festival Jazz Band. In addition to rehearsals, students will have the chance to participate in a private lesson with Luther College faculty. This lesson may serve as a time to work one on one with faculty, an audition to be an outstanding concert soloist, or it may serve as a music scholarship audition for seniors who are interested in attending Luther College. The Luther College Concert Band and Jazz Orchestra perform for the festival participants on Sunday evening, along with our outstanding Dorian Concert Soloists. The four festival bands perform in a Grand Concert on Monday evening.
If you are nominating a senior who is interested in attending Luther, you can sign them up for a scholarship audition during this festival weekend!
The 2024 Dorian Band Festival Repertoire:
9-12 Mass Band
- Valdres by Johannes Hanssen/arr. Curnow
- Prevailing Fire by Tyler Grant
- Our Cast Aways by Julie Giroux
- ASIMO by Roger Zare
11/12 Mass Band
- Zing! by Scott McAllister
- Folksong of Midu by Li Chen
- Under the Double Eagle March by Josef Franz Wagner/Glover
Symphonic Band
- Summit by Kevin Day
- “Sleeping Giant” from Lake Superior Suite by Cait Nishimura
- Vesuvius by Frank Ticheli
Jazz Band
- Things Ain’t What They Used to Be arr. Alan Baylock
- Early Morning (African Sunrise) by Oliver Nelson
- Kaleidoscope by Erik Morales
- El Alma de la Banda by Gordon Goodwin
Band Festival Resources
Dorian Band Festival Audition Requirements 2024
- 9/10 Mass Band: No Video Audition Requirement. Selection is based on the teacher nomination form.
- 11/12 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. Students should come to the audition prepared to play any excerpt from the selected festival pieces.
- Submit all videos to: dorian@luther.edu
- 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.
- Submit all videos to: dorian@luther.edu
- Piccolo, flute, clarinet, oboe, all saxophones, bassoon, trumpet, french horn, trombone, euphonium TC, euphonium BC, tuba, double bass (acoustic, upright)
- 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.
- My Romance: Horns: play the melody. Piano: play the melody with appropriate accompaniment (comping). Bass: play a walking bass line with chord realization appropriate to the ballad style. Drum set: play accompaniment to this style. All can embellish the melody and accompaniment.
- (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.
- Submit all videos to: dorian@luther.edu
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.
Use the following map of campus to find the Center for Faith and Life (main concert hall), Jenson-Noble Hall of Music, the Regents Center North Gym, 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 Jazz Band.
Please reference our 2024 schedule before we post our 2025 festival schedule in the fall of 2025.
Live Schedule. Subject to minor changes.
NEW THIS YEAR: We will be able to accept online credit card payments for festival fees, in addition to receiving payments by check and/or cash. Download the paper form (found at the bottom of this tab) if you are paying with cash or check. Please reach out to dorian@luther.edu if the fees present a financial hardship for your school or students.
PLEASE READ: In an effort to have the roster information and the fees form match, please refer to the roster, found in your teacher email from Dorian, prior to submission. If you have ANY changes to your roster, including but not limited to: lessons, housing, number of attendees, you MUST reach out to dorian@luther.edu with that update prior to filling out this form.
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Contact Information
Ella Sneltjes
Associate Director of Music Outreach and Marketing
Email: ella.sneltjes@luther.edu
or dorian@luther.edu
Phone: 563-387-1389