ILMEA - 2026 junior and senior Cycle 3 (2026-27)
Illinois All-State band audition requirements
Wind players prepare the ILMEA scale sheet for their level - the Senior Level Scale Sheet carries a 3 minute time limit and all notes must be tongued - plus two commissioned etudes drawn from ILMEA Commissioned Etude Cycle 3, one technical and one lyrical.
ILMEA | district band
Waiting for ILMEA district selections
ILMEA schedules festival selections for Week of Oct. 12, after judging ends.
Ask your director to check Nominate. Keep one etude passage ready, or choose music for your next goal.
Nominate requires an educator login.
Check ILMEA's release scheduleLast checked October 6, 2026 | Official source: https://ilmea.org/s/26-27-Student-Programs-Timeline.pdf
What to work on this week
Use this plan for your next round, a solo, or next season. Not taking another audition? Choose music with your director and use the same steps.
- 5 minutes - Review a familiar scale or pattern. Choose one connected to the etude. Keep the tempo comfortable.
- 10 minutes - Revisit an etude passage. Choose a section you want to keep ready. Work slowly where needed.
- 5 minutes - Record and check. Record a short section. Listen with the score and mark one detail to practice next.
- 10 minutes - Read something different. Try a short, unfamiliar piece or a possible solo. Look over its key, meter, and rhythms before playing.
Find the official material, audition procedure and dates below. Confirm every date and requirement with your director. Organizations update packets.
Who runs it and how you advance
| Organizing body | The Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) runs district festivals and All-State through 9 districts. |
|---|---|
| District to All-State | Your director nominates you for the recorded district audition. All-State seating uses a separate recording after selection. |
Scales
The engraved PDF is the authority. Play from it for the notes, octaves, ranges, key signatures, meters and tempos.
| What to play | Record the entire printed scale sheet for your level. Junior winds have no scale time limit; senior winds have 3 minutes. The wind and percussion policy says to tongue all scale notes. |
|---|---|
| Memory | A scale memorization requirement was not published in the material read on 2026-09-07. The general policy allows prepared music without a score deduction. |
| Official scale sheets | Use the Junior Band Audition Scale Sheets or Senior HS Band Audition Scales for your instrument and level. |
| Percussion | The statewide junior and senior percussion audition instructions do not include scales. |
What to prepare
| Official cuts | The posted source is ILMEA Commissioned Etude Cycle 3. The junior and senior instructions still say to play the entire technical and lyrical etudes. The timeline scheduled scales and cuts for September 9, 2026. Re-read the Cycle 3 PDFs before treating a cut as official. |
|---|---|
| Flute and double reeds | Flute: Cycle 3 - Flute, Ben Hoppe. Oboe: Cycle 3 - Oboe, Todd Stalter. Bassoon: Cycle 3 - Bassoon, Josh Lopez. ILMEA posts the junior and senior technical and lyrical etudes as separate files, in its Technical Etudes and Lyrical Etudes folders. English horn has a senior Cycle 3 packet. A standalone statewide piccolo Cycle 3 packet was not published in the folders read. The senior instructions assign bass-trombone material to contrabassoon. |
| Clarinets | Bb clarinet and bass clarinet: ILMEA posts the junior and senior technical and lyrical etudes as separate files, in its Technical Etudes and Lyrical Etudes folders. Standalone alto, contra and Eb clarinet Cycle 3 etude packets were not published in the folders read. A rule assigning bass-clarinet etudes to alto or contra clarinet was not published.
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| Saxophones | Alto, tenor and baritone saxophone: ILMEA Junior or Senior Concert Etude - Technical and Etude - Lyrical, Cycle 3 - Saxophone, Dan Moroz. ILMEA posts each Concert Etude as its own file, in its Technical Etudes and Lyrical Etudes folders. |
| High brass | Trumpet and cornet use the Cycle 3 - Trumpet packets by Evan Kessler. French horn uses Cycle 3 - French Horn. ILMEA posts the junior and senior technical and lyrical etudes as separate files, in its Technical Etudes and Lyrical Etudes folders. |
| Low brass | Use the junior or senior Cycle 3 packet for trombone, euphonium or tuba. Bass trombone has a separate senior packet. ILMEA posts the technical and lyrical etudes as separate files, in its Technical Etudes and Lyrical Etudes folders. |
| Percussion | ILMEA Junior and Senior Concert Audition Material, Cycle 3 - Percussion, Katrina Cessna: snare drum on page 1, timpani on page 2 and mallets on page 3. Senior percussion also includes Cycle 3 - Tambourine/Cymbal on page 4. |
| District supplements | The state's documents disagree; see the packet. The hub, wind and percussion policy, and general audition policy give different directions about supplemental material. |
Practice for ILMEA with your audition tempo, tuner and drone on one screen
Virtunity is a practice app built by a band director. Set up each scale and excerpt, then work it up a step at a time.
Scan with your iPhone to get Virtunity
Practice now in your browser: free tuner, metronome and droneHow it fits each part of this audition
- Scales
- Set up each scale in Virtunity and practice it with the metronome at your audition tempo, with the tuner and drone in the same window. Scale Checker confirms scale notes on your iPhone. Notes only. Not tone, rhythm or a complete performance.
- Prepared etudes
- Keep the PDF in your Music Library and set the piece up in practice with the metronome, tuner and your notes beside it. Start under tempo: good reps in a row move the tempo up a step, and Keep lets you stay at the old tempo.
- A recorded audition
- Practice the run-through. Record a final take and listen back in Review before you record the real one. A saved take stays private until you choose to share it with a connected teacher.
- Tone and intonation
- Every judge listens for these. The tuner shows your note and how sharp or flat it is, and the drone gives you a steady reference pitch for long tones.
- Tempo
- Tap tempo finds a marked tempo, and subdivision clicks keep your eighths, triplets and sixteenths even.
For students 13 and up. Virtunity helps you prepare. Your playing on audition day earns the chair.
Sight-reading
| Published procedure | A sight-reading requirement, study time, level and source were not published in the wind and percussion material read on 2026-09-07. The district instructions list scales and prepared etudes; the seating policy lists required material and repertoire excerpts. |
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Scoring and audition format
| Wind scoring | 70 points: scales 10, tone 15, intonation 10, technique 15, rhythm 10 and musicianship 10. The 2 etudes share the non-scale points equally. |
|---|---|
| Percussion scoring | Junior: 60 points, with 20 each for snare, keyboard and timpani. Senior: 70 points, with the same 3 areas plus 10 for auxiliary percussion. |
| District recording | Submit 1 continuous unlisted YouTube video through your director. Pauses between sections are allowed. Audio or video cleanup, titles and captions are not allowed. The recording instructions prohibit metronomes, headphones, pitch-giving, cueing and coaching. |
| All-State seating | The separate seating recording uses required scales, excerpts of the ILMEA etudes and current All-State repertoire excerpts. The exact 2026-27 seating window and repertoire cuts were not published in the material read. |
Key dates for this season
Dates read on 2026-10-04.
| Director nominations due | Nominations closed at 5:00pm September 16, 2026. A fee is due for every nomination entered, even without a video. |
|---|---|
| District video window | The September 16-30, 2026 district video window has closed. Links were due at 5:00pm September 30, 2026. |
| District selections | Week of October 12, 2026. |
| All-State selections | Week of December 7, 2026. |
| IMEC / All-State | January 27-30, 2027, in Peoria. |
Read from Illinois Music Education Association on 2026-10-04; season 2026 junior and senior Cycle 3 (2026-27). Check the packet before you rely on any of this.