The annual spring NYSSMA Solo festival is four weeks away, and at the risk of being a killjoy I wanted to put things in perspective for my flute students. Last year in the state of New York, 337 flute students auditioned for All-State. 26 were accepted, and 49 were named alternates. If you auditioned, you had a 22% chance of being selected, and a mere 7% chance of actually being on stage at All-State. Your chances were only slightly better on piccolo. Last year 49 students auditioned on piccolo for All-State; 4 were accepted and 11 named alternates. This translates into a 30% chance of being selected, and an 8% chance of being on stage. These numbers do not take into account the various Area All-State festivals that happen, into which the top students are much more likely to get accepted.
I was curious which instruments have the highest acceptance rate in our state, the top three are Eb clarinet (83% chance), Baritone Saxophone (57%), and Timpani (47%). Every other instrument in the orchestra is in the neighborhood of 20 to 30%. These are sobering statistics, and I certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from auditioning. As I’ve said here before, it is incredibly valuable as a musician to go through the audition process and have a complete stranger give you feedback on your playing. I list these numbers here because I want each of my students who audition to have their goal be to perform at their best. Anything else that they gain from their performance is truly icing on the cake.