Anticipated Festival Schedule
Friday (Harding Band Building)
12:30 PM – Director and Student Check-in
1:00 PM – Rehearsal
2:30 PM – Sectionals/Sousa Museum Tour Rotation
4:00 PM – Dinner Break (not provided)
6:00 PM – Rehearsal
8:00 PM – Rehearsal Ends
Saturday (Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
8:30 AM Student arrival
9:00 AM Rehearsal
10:45 AM Break
11:00 AM Rehearsal
12:00 PM Lunch (provided)
1:00 PM Rehearsal
2:15 PM Break, Students change, etc…
3:00 PM AIJB Concert (Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
Accepted students are required to attend all rehearsals and performance. Students who are unable to commit to the entire duration of the AIJB Festival should not audition.
AIJB 2025 Guest Conductor
Linda Moorhouse, University of Illinois
Membership
To be eligible to audition for AIJB, the participating school must be a member of either IGSMA North or IGSMA South. Students must reside in the State of Illinois, be a 7th or 8th grader in good standing in the Illinois school band program, and be nominated and registered by their school band director.
Membership in AIJB will be determined by recorded audition to fill a set instrumentation (see below).
Audition Requirements
Audition requirements are posted on the AIJB.org website. Required recordings must be submitted by the director in mp3, m4a, or wav format through the online registration portal by the audition deadline. Recordings must be unedited, complete takes, of the auditioning student.
Audition Procedure
- Director registers for a free director account. Contact Karen Moffett (KMoffett@maercker.org) for instructions.
- Register for Illinois Grade School Music Association (Northern Division or Southern Division)
- Beginning August 31, 2024, directors may register their student applications and upload audition recordings. Only recordings submitted through the online portal will be accepted.
- An audition fee of $12.00 per application is required to process the application recording. (Checks payable to All-Illinois Junior Band, PO Box #41, Clarendon Hills, IL 60514. An invoice may be printed following student registration.)
- Audition recordings may be uploaded at the time of registration or at a later date (as long as they are uploaded by the audition deadline).
- Recordings will be blindly evaluated by independent adjudicators. Students will be selected into AIJB strictly through the audition score.
- The audition deadline is 11:59 PM on November 1, 2024. Late applications will not be accepted.
Audition Results and Participation Fee
Audition results will be distributed to directors via email and music delivered via regular mail. If selected, there is a $60.00 participation fee per student which covers costs associated with the AIJB Festival, including a t-shirt, Friday night reception, and lunch on Saturday.
Following the announcement of the audition results. Directors may login to their director account. https://www.aijb.org/login to confirm their selected students and download an invoice for participation fees. Confirmation of the selected students and their participation fee is due December 1.
Festival Music
Following the announcement of the audition results, festival music will be sent to the selected students. It is imperative that students arrive at the AIJB Festival with all material prepared to performance level before arriving to the festival. All music is the property of AIJB and will be returned following the performance.
Director Participation
It is required that each student have a designated, responsible adult (preferably a parent or adult relative) throughout the festival weekend when students are not involved in AIJB rehearsals, events, or concerts. In the absence of a parent or relative, the child’s band director may serve as the responsible adult if agreed upon by the family, director, and school. The responsible adult must be reachable and accessible during the duration of the festival, and adults are welcome to observe rehearsals and attend special programming throughout the festival weekend.
Accommodations
Transportation to and from the University of Illinois, local transportation, meals (excluding Saturday lunch), and hotel accommodations are the financial responsibility of the participating student’s family and/or director and school. An anticipated schedule of events is listed in this document, and a final schedule of events including rehearsal times and places will be furnished prior to the festival weekend. It is each student’s responsibility to assure they arrive at all events in a timely manner.
If necessary, it is recommended that hotel reservations be made as soon as students receive their acceptance.
AIJB Instrumentation
8 flute
2 oboe
2 bassoon
15 clarinet
3 bass clarinet
4 alto saxophone
2 tenor saxophone
2 baritone saxophone
12 trumpet
8 french horn
8 trombone
4 euphonium
4 tuba
6-8 percussion (pending repertoire needs)
Listed instrumentation numbers are maximums. If the quality of submitted auditions do not support the maximum acceptances a smaller section will be selected. Piccolo (pending repertoire needs) will be determined via a short recorded audition from the selected flute students. Interested students will submit recorded excerpts from the festival repertoire.
Additionally, one to three alternates, per instrument, will be selected. Alternates will only be required to attend the festival and pay the participation fee if select students decline their chair or fail to meet other requirements. Alternates may not necessarily be used in the case of last-minute illness.
Professional Development
We are pleased to be able to offer professional development sessions during the AIJB Festival. These sessions will be free for directors to attend and are open to all directors, regardless of whether or not they have students participating in the festival.
Questions?
If you have questions or need help registering your students please contact Luke Fleisher and Karen Moffett at info@aijb.org.