Joining Camerata Notturna

We are always on the lookout for potential new members! If you are a skilled instrumentalist with a sense of humor, ensemble experience and a passion for great music-making, we'd love to talk to you. As a 100% volunteer organization, we are equal opportunity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religious belief, or whether you root for the Mets or the Yankees (or even the Red Sox).

Our members are both amateur and professional musicians, and we strive to maintain a high standard of playing. We do not target a specific "profile" for members, but most are young (the median age is around 30), well-educated professionals in a diverse range of fields, ranging from academia to arts administration, banking, computer science, consulting, fashion, law, medicine, and music therapy. We are a fun, collegial group, that understands that its members lead busy lives outside of the orchestra, but we also expect our members to get to rehearsal, work hard on their parts, and contribute in ways beyond just playing their instruments.

Our priorities are musical excellence, and providing an extraordinary experience for our members and our audiences. This means we rehearse a lot, relative to professional groups or even other amateur groups. For each of our concert cycles, we will generally have 7 full rehearsals plus a dress rehearsal on the day of a concert (always on Saturday evenings… allowing maximum freedom for the after-parties!). Two of these rehearsals are typically on weekends (the first of a cycle plus a rehearsal occurring about a week before the concert), with the remainders being on weekday evenings from 8-10:30, usually Wednesday nights. Our priorities also mean we are a small orchestra, by design, because we want all of our members to feel connected to the music we make by hearing it and feeling it as we’re making it, and to grow as musicians by listening and interacting with each other (as well as our amazing guest artists), and inspiring each other towards greater heights.

The process for joining the orchestra is pretty informal: we'd like to meet you, talk about your musical history, and hear you in a short audition. Admission to the orchestra is very competitive, given we’re such a small group and thus have a very limited number of openings, but we’d still like to hear from you! To request an audition, please use our Contact Us page to send us a message, which will ideally include your name, contact info, your “day job” and a brief history of your musical experience. We cannot respond to all requests immediately, so we appreciate your patience. As of Sepetmber 2014, we are open to hearing auditions on all instruments excluding viola and clarinet.

Audition Guidelines & Requests

VIOLIN

  • A fast movement from one of the three major Mozart concertos (No. 3, 4 or 5)
  • Either 1) a virtuosic showpiece (Sarasate, Wieniawski, Saint-Saens, etc.), or 2) the first movement from a romantic concerto (no Bruch or Lalo please)

VIOLA

  • Fast movement (i.e. Allegro or faster) of a classical concerto (Stamitz, Rolla), or the Schubert Arpeggione Sonata, or fast movement of Walton or Bartok concerto
  • A Prelude or Gigue from Bach solo cello suites (preferably #4-6)

CELLO

  • First or third movement of either Haydn concerto or the Schubert Arpeggione Sonata; or the theme and first two variations of Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations.
  • Either 1) one Prelude or Gigue from Bach solo cello suites (preferably #4-6), or 2) a substantial movement of a solo cello work by Crumb, Ligeti, Hindemith, Penderecki, or similar.

WINDS, BRASS AND DOUBLE BASS

  • A solo work of your choice from the standard repertoire for your instrument
  • At least two excerpts from the standard orchestral repertoire of contrasting styles and demands

To request an audition, please use our Contact Us page.