The Young Performers Concerto Competition for the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra will be held on Saturday, January 4, 2025, at Ottawa High School Auditorium from 9:00am through 12:30pm. Winners will perform with the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra on Friday, February 28, 2025, at Ottawa High School at 9:30am and Streator High School at 1pm. Winners will also perform with the IVSO on Saturday, March 8, 2025, at 7pm at Ottawa High School.

It’s not too early to dream about starring with the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra! All you need to do is apply yourself!

As music students you’re all in the same boat: You focus on your fingers and fine-tune your phrasing, daring to hope that that this year you’ll be less nervous about performing than you were the year before.

Because you know that the more you confidently face this challenge, the stronger you’ll be.

We fall for Vivaldi’s Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8!

This post is written by guest author Elliot Butler, a senior at Western Illinois University who will graduate in December of 2020 with a degree in music composition. He evaluated several free music notation software programs and reviewed five of them for us in this ranked list.

Dr. Eric Ginsberg, WIU Professor of Clarinet, shares practice tips and performs ILMEA Set 2 audition music, Rose Étude #5: Adagio, and Rose Étude # 14, Tempo di Polacca.

Who inspires you? Who’s inspired by you?

Be challenged and encouraged by other young musicians in the Illinois Valley as you prepare and audition for a solo spot with the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra!

If some of us were to be honest, we’d secretly admit that practicing scales can be a little like taking medicine we didn’t know we needed! So what if playing scales could be little more… epic? Give it a try with this great soundtrack and let us know how it’s helping you in the comments below!