Welcome to NYPBS Auditions! Congratulations for making it this far!
Here you will find out about Auditions and download your music.
Audition Workshops
Audition workshops are a taste of what it’s like to work with NYPBS. You get to play some music, meet the tutors, and meet some of the other participants. It’s also a chance for us to get to know you a little bit better, hear you play and also get to hear what you want to get out of a year with NYPBS and what you’re working on.
Try not to be nervous about audition workshops, it’s not a test!
Workshop Repertoire
This year, our workshops are going to be based around a piece of music written for the MacLean Brothers as they rowed across the Pacific Ocean. In April 2025, the brothers set off to row across the full Pacific Ocean: 9,000 miles non-stop and unsupported. In doing so, they broke multiple world records and became the fastest ever to do so.
The tune, named after their boat, Rose Emily, was written by Fiddle player Duncan Chisholm and Piper Ross Ainslie.
Find out more about the MacLean Brothers here: https://www.themacleanbrothers.com/
The tune on the pipes is quite fun and a bit tricky. It’s in the key of A minor, meaning that we will have to tape our C and F on our practice chanters and use alternative fingering to get a C natural and an F natural.
Your Audition Interview
During the interview part of the audition workshop, you will be asked to play on your instrument. For pipers, we normally ask to hear a Strathspey and a Jig - which gives us a good understanding of what your overall playing is like. For drummers, we may ask you to play some music from your band’s repertoire, showcasing a variety of styles.
Play things you are comfortable with - if also helps if you enjoy playing them!
We’ll also ask you some questions about your playing and your goals, and there might be a little bit of sight reading on a practice chanter or drum pad.
Workshop Music
How well do you have to know the workshop music?
We know that you won’t have much time to look over the workshop music before your audition. This is fine! Make sure you have a look and play through it before arriving. We will be workshopping and putting this music together on the day. There will be scope for sharing ideas, trying things out and having some fun with it.
We might even change some things altogether to make the music work for each workshop.