Xayvion Davidson, bassoon & Angelina Bautista, oboe perform at the Accelerando Spring Recital, June 11, 2018. (click images to enlarge)
Beginning next week, Nashville Symphony EDCE staff will hold a series of public information meetings for students interested in auditioning this year for the symphony’s award-winning Accelerando program. Students selected through this year’s audition process will join the program in August 2019.
Founded in 2016, Accelerando is designed to prepare gifted young students of diverse backgrounds to pursue music at the collegiate level and beyond. Accelerando seeks to create professional opportunities for musicians from ethnic communities underrepresented in today’s orchestras by providing them with instruction, mentorship, performance experience and assistance applying to music schools. With access to the resources of a major American orchestra, these students will be able to realize their full potential and will form the next generation of orchestra musicians.
We are seeking to grow our current enrollment of sixteen students to a total of twenty students in 2019-20. Please help spread the word about this unique, ground-breaking program and help us find these students!
The purpose of Accelerando is to prepare students from ethnically diverse backgrounds to win auditions and gain entrance to music school, and to thereby eventually become professional orchestral musicians.
Families interested in learning more about Accelerando are invited to attend one of three public meetings with Nashville Symphony staff:
TUESDAYS
- January 22, 6:30-7:30pm at Antioch High School, 1900 Hobson Pike, Antioch, TN
- February 5, 6:30-7:30pm at I.T. Creswell Middle School of the Arts, 3500 John Mallette Dr, Nashville, TN 37218
- February 12, 6:30-7:30pm at Casa Azafrán, 2195 Nolensville Pike Nashville, TN 37211 [Spanish translator will be present]
Accelerando students perform with the New Village Orchestra and The Black Mozart Ensemble at Nashville State Community College, September 11, 2018
Accelerando auditions are open to students in grades 4 – 9 from ethnic communities underrepresented in today’s orchestras. Students must audition on a standard orchestral instrument:
- Violin
- Viola
- Cello
- Bass
- Flute
- Oboe
- Clarinet
- Bassoon
- Horn
- Trumpet
- Trombone
- Tuba
- Percussion
- Harp
This program is open only to orchestral instrumentalists. Applications for piano, saxophone, guitar or vocals will not be accepted.
Michael Tilson Thomas masterclass with Accelerando student Aalia Hanif, flute; New World Symphony, Miami, October 23, 2018.
Accelerando is a 100% scholarship program. Students who are accepted to the program will receive instruction, counseling, and many other opportunities, free of charge.
Accelerando is not a needs-based program. Financial/economic status will not be considered during the application process.
Click here to download a printer-friendly 2019 Accelerando flyer in PDF format.
Click here for Application Information & Audition Requirements.
Click here for the Accelerando category archives here on Off The Podium.
Deadline to apply for 2019 Auditions is Friday, February 15, 2019 at noon.
Auditions will be held on Saturday, March 2.
The Nashville Symphony will contact applicants with a scheduled audition time and location following the application deadline on February 15.
The Nashville Symphony is honored to partner with the following organizations in making the Accelerando program available to the Middle Tennessee community:
Blair School of Music
at Vanderbilt University
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Music Makes Us
Leadership funding for Accelerando is provided by
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Nashville Symphony Official Education Partner
Walter Bitner 