National Open Youth Orchestra Programme Manager Bea, and harpist Holli stand talking to one another. 

(Bea) My name’s Bea, I'm the Programme Manager for the National Open Youth Orchestra and my job is to organise the orchestra.

(Holli) If you haven't done an audition before, what kind of tips do you have?

(Bea) A really good thing to do before an audition is make sure you practice the music you want to play lots of times before the audition make sure you listen to that music as well, and make sure you've got everything ready the night before that you need: your instrument, your music, make sure you know where you need to travel to, so that you know exactly what you need to do.

(Holli) Often when you're in an audition they can feel quite scary. Do you have any tips?

(Bea) Yes! I think one of the best things you can do if you’re nervous before an audition is take a couple of really deep breaths. It's really good idea to take a really good breath in, hold it for a second, and let all the air out. Do that a few times because that will really help.

It's a really good idea sometimes to make sure that you've had a good drink of water. If you've had a drink of water and you've had a snack to make sure that you've got some energy, you put your body in the best possible state to be ready to go in and play.

(Holli) What kind of things are done in the audition to help people?

(Bea) Well, we like to send all the information with about two weeks notice. We’ll also send photographs of where you're going to go and do the audition and photos of the people you’ll be meeting as well. We always try and stick really carefully to our timetable, so that you're not waiting, if at all possible.

We also make sure that we’ve asked for your access needs beforehand, and make sure that there's a moment on the day to ask. So, if there's anything we can do to help, just ask!

(Holli) What kind of things are you looking for in the audition?

(Bea) So we really want to see how you play, we want to hear how you play, and we want to know if you can work with us when we do our workshopping in the audition. The maybe slightly different thing about our auditions is that we do want to make sure we hear some skills that are about somebody playing with a group of musicians.

The National Open Youth Orchestra logo appears on a white background.