College of Music

Auditions are now being accepted.
Deadline to apply is March 2, 2020.

Audition Requirements

Audition applications are done online. Please do not send us audition applications or materials via email.

You will be required to complete the following:

• An application form that asks general questions about the camper and questions about your audition.
• A brief, 1-page resumé of your playing experience. This may include school experience, special performances, other camps you have attended, private lesson experience and any other pertinent musical details. Click here for a sample.
• A link to a YouTube, Vimeo, or other hosting platform of you playing the following:
  1. two (2) pieces of contrasting style. One piece that is up-tempo and more technically demanding; one piece that is slower, more lyrical). These should be classical pieces. These can be two movements of the same piece. Overall length of each piece should be between 3-6 minutes.
  2. two (2) scales of your choice.

Audition Review

You will be notified of our decision via email on or around April 1, 2020. All applicants will receive an email regardless of the audition results.

Your audition application will be reviewed for the following two things:

• Acceptance to the Honors Chamber Winds Ensemble Camp
• Possible discounts to Band Camp for Senior High in the event you are not selected to HCW (see Band Camp Alternative information on the sidebar).

Richard Clary is Professor of Conducting, Senior Band Conductor, and Director of Wind Ensemble Studies at FSU. He serves as Music Director/Conductor for the internationally renowned University Wind Orchestra and Chamber Winds, teaches graduate-level conducting and wind literature courses, and guides Conducting Majors in both the Music Education Ph.D. and the Master of Music in Wind Band Conducting degree programs.

Prior to his 2003 appointment at FSU, Professor Clary served ten years as Director of Bands at the University of Kentucky. His combined tenures in Lexington and Tallahassee have seen him conduct highly-acclaimed performances for the 1997, 2003, 2007 and 2015 National Conferences of the College Band Directors National Association, as well as the 2013 National Convention of the American Bandmasters Association.

Professional memberships include the National Association for Music Education, Florida Music Educators Association, Florida Bandmasters Association, College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and the prestigious American Bandmasters Association (ABA). In March, 2017 he assumed two-year terms as both Member of the ABA Executive Board, and as CBDNA National Executive Board President.

Professor Clary holds Bachelor and Master of Music diplomas in Music Education from the Arizona State University School of Music, and has completed all course work and exams for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting at the University of Washington in Seattle. His principal conducting teachers have been Richard Strange, Tim Salzman, and Peter Erös.

Bio Coming Soon.

Michelle Stebleton is Professor of Horn and member of the Florida State Brass Quintet and the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. Since coming to FSU in 1990, she has been awarded the Teaching Incentive Program Award, an Undergraduate Teaching Award, and several large research grants. Through these grants she recorded two compact discs available on MSR Classics: The Horn Works of Paul Basler and MirrorImage at the Opera, a recording of her horn duo with Lisa Bontrager. The Florida State Brass Quintet’s CD Strophes of the Night and Dawn is available through Crystal Records.

Ms. Stebleton, a Holton-Leblanc Artist Clinician, is a six-time prize winner in various divisions of the American Horn Competition. She has traveled to 26 countries as a chamber artist and clinician and performs regularly as a soloist and clinician in Paraguay, The Czech Republic, and under the baton of Philipe Entremont in the bi-annual Music Festival Orchestra in the Dominican Republic.

At FSU Professor Stebleton maintains a horn studio of about 30 students. She offers daily Fundamentals Class, weekly Studio Classes, and Horn Choir. In addition, she teaches the Horn component of Solo Brass Literature. Actively performing, she is regularly featured at the International Horn Society Symposiums and Southeast Horn Workshops. She currently serves as on the Advisory Council of the International Horn Society.

Professor Stebleton received B.M. and M.M. degrees from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Louis J. Stout and Lowell Greer. She holds a diploma from the Prague Mozart Academy.

Dr. Justin Benavidez is the Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Florida State University and leads an active career as a performer and educator. He previously held a similar professorship at the Ithaca College School of Music. Dr. Benavidez is the Tuba-Artist Faculty at the Round Top Summer Music Festival and is the acting Principal Tuba of the Syracuse Symphoria Orchestra and the Syracuse Opera.

Dr. Benavidez has been a prizewinner at several national and international solo competitions and is a past winner of the prestigious Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition. He was the first tubist to receive both the New Horizons Fellowship and the Orchestral Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival where he held the Principal Tuba chair in the Aspen Festival Orchestra. He was the distinguished recipient of the Horace H. Rackham Merit Fellowship for Doctoral Studies at the University of Michigan. Dr. Benavidez is a B&S/Meinl Weston artist and clinician.

This camp offers students the option to sign-up for private lessons at an additional cost of $50.00 per 50-minute lesson. There is a maximum of 2 private lessons per week.

All lessons are organized and paid for at camp check-in. Lessons are scheduled with a teacher based on availability at check-in. The administration office does not have a list of private lesson teachers ahead of time.

Payments for lessons are payable by cash or check only and checks must be made payable directly to the instructor. The lesson(s) will take place during lunch or during a sectional rehearsal; no lessons are scheduled outside of the 8am-5pm class day.

Many of our camps have a placement audition at check-in to determine ensemble and chair placement. Some camps also have a music theory survey to determine your level of theory experience. These events take place during Administrative Check-in before you go to the dorm. Once the camper completes these check-in activities we will build a class schedule to fit.

Campers should prepare the following for the Honors Chamber Winds placement audition:

Two scales of your choice
Two solo excerpts, etudes or short pieces

• One piece should be slower, lyrical
• One piece should be faster and more technically demanding
• (Percussionist should prepare a snare piece and a mallet piece)

Once quintet assignments have been made they will not be changed.

If a registered student becomes unable to attend camp for any reason AND camp administration received a written refund request, the following refund policy will apply:

• Written notice received in camp office 10 or more business days(Monday - Friday, 8am-5pm) prior to the first day of camp: Full refund of tuition and housing less the $100.00 deposit.
• Written notice received in camp office 1-9 business days(Monday - Friday, 8am-5pm) prior to the first day of camp: Refund of tuition only less the $100.00 deposit.
• As of 5:00pm on the night before camp check-in: No refunds of any kind.

Accepted forms of written notification include:

• Letters mailed to the camp administration office at FSU Summer Music Camps, PO BOX 3061180, Tallahassee, FL 32306 and RECEIVED in our office according to the policy above.
• Email sent to the camp administration office at musiccamps@fsu.edu.  Please be sure to get a reply confirming that we received you email request and that your refund is being processed.
• Letters faxed to the camp administration office at 850-644-5257.

All of the above methods must be RECEIVED in our office according to the Refund Policy. Please be sure to get a confirmation from our office indicating that your request to cancel was received and that the refund is being processed.

You will need to know your Customer ID number to make an online payment. This number can be found on the email confirmation you received when you registered. If you do no know this number or did not get an email confirmation of your registration, please send a request to register@capd.fsu.edu and the registrar will email you back with your number.

Continue to Payment Site

For more information about making payments, our Cancellation and Refund Policy, due dates, and more, go to the Payment Information Page.

Once you are registered to attend camp, you will need to complete your Camp Forms. The packet includes the required consent forms, a medical form, an elective preference form, a housing and dining form, and order forms for optional services. Filling out these forms as soon as possible will help us provide you with a great camp experience.

You can fill out these forms online or send them back by mail. We ask that you provide this information as soon as possible, but the deadline to submit all forms and requests is JUNE 03.

If you are coming to more than one camp, you only need to fill out this information once.

Forms Available After Acceptance Notices Are Sent

The best way to prepare for camp is to read your handbook. You can view the handbook online as an interactive PDF or you can download and print out a PDF version. There is information in this handbook that pertains to both parents and campers, so we encourage everyone to take the time to read it.

Interactive Online Version

Interactive PDF to download and print

This camp has been cancelled for summer 2020.  Please click here for more information.