FOOSA Festival: Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy

Daily lessons. World-class faculty. Challenging repertoire. Concerts in two major concert halls. Four student recitals. Concerto competition. And more. This is FOOSA, the Fresno Summer Academy Orchestra. We can't wait to hear you!

Our two-week summer intensive is geared toward serious players who want to commit themselves to a rigorous daily workout involving orchestra rehearsals, daily lessons, master classes, individual practice, a professional orchestral recording session, and plenty of performance opportunities, including a concerto competition. 

FOOSA PHILHARMONIC PROGRAM

Our FOOSA Philharmonic is a pre-professional orchestra that allows advanced musicians of graduate school, college, and high school age* to enjoy a side-by-side performance experience with our outstanding faculty members.

*A select number of exceptionally advanced younger pre-college students may be offered spots in the FOOSA Philharmonic. Eligibility will be decided on the basis of submitted audition videos and teacher recommendations.

DEADLINE FOR FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS IS MARCH 15, 2024! ***Scholarships and Fellowships still available for violin and viola applicants. Rolling deadline until all spots have been filled. 

Instrumentation:

Instrumentation needs: violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute/piccolo, oboe/English horn, clarinet/bass clarinet/e-flat clarinet, bassoon/contra, horn, trumpet, trombone/bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, and harp. Rolling admissions will continue until we have filled all available positions. 

We will make our selections based on applications received by March 15, 2024. If we need additional instrumentation, rolling admissions will continue until positions are filled.

Fellowships for college and graduate students:

ONLY COLLEGE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS, or COLLEGE GRADUATES, ARE ELIGIBLE FOR FOOSA FELLOWSHIPS. These special positions are intended for advanced players with excellent recommendations, compelling audition videos, and an interest in teaching. You must apply by the MARCH 15 DEADLINE and include a letter of recommendation from your major teacher or a similarly authoritative source to be considered for a fellowship. Fellowship students receive full scholarship. 

Tuition Assistance:

Need-based tuition assistance is available to anyone who meets the MARCH 15 APPLICATION DEADLINE and submits a completed TUITION ASSISTANCE FORM and all required additional materials. Please do not submit a partially completed form, or a form minus accompanying materials. We cannot accept incomplete applications.

Audition videos

You will need to record a video in which you perform whatever is listed on our audition requirements page as required for your instrument.  No professional videography is needed. A video recorded with a smartphone or computer will be good enough. Accompaniment is acceptable on solos, but by no means required.

Note: For the FOOSA Philharmonic we will accept players of the following orchestral instruments: violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute (piccolo), oboe/EH, clarinet (E-flat, A, bass in addition to B-flat), bassoon (contra), French horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, percussion, and harp. No piano at this time.

*Those who play doubling instruments will find instructions for those instruments as well. If you have any trouble uploading videos, or have additional questions, just contact us at cmarchese@yoofresno.org. 

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION and AUDITION REQUIREMENTS, PLEASE SEE OUR FOOSA PHIL FAQ PAGE.

FOOSA FESTIVAL, MORE INFORMATION

The FOOSA Festival takes place on the Fresno State campus.

All applications are due on or before March 15, 2024 (11:59pm PST). If any positions are left unfilled at that point, we will employ a rolling deadline until all positions are filled.

Here's a video from our summer 2019 concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Please watch to get an idea of what we do! 

If you have more questions about your application, please get in touch with us directly at cmarchese@yoofresno.org  or via phone at (559) 512-1726 to discuss how we can best help you.

For technical questions, please visit the Acceptd Help Desk.