Welcome to the 26th Annual National Orchestral Institute and Festival

The UMD School of Music’s National Orchestral Institute and Festival (NOI) welcomes nearly 100 talented orchestral musicians for four weeks of dynamic music-making, June 6–29, 2013, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

NOI features outstanding young musicians and world-renowned conductors in chamber and orchestral concerts that celebrate musical traditions while also exploring new ways of engaging audiences. Selected by a rigorous, cross-country audition process, NOI participants quickly coalesce into energetic ensembles that perform adventuresome programming.

Now in its 26th year, NOI has nurtured an entire generation of American orchestral musicians. James Undercofler, NOI’s artistic director, notes, “The musicians you hear at the National Orchestral Institute will surely be tomorrow’s first-rank players in orchestras throughout the world.” Alumni of NOI have gone on to win positions with virtually every major U.S. symphony orchestra including the Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, National, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle Symphony Orchestras; the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

“This is a program that is focused entirely on students who want an orchestral career,” said James Undercofler, the artistic director of the National Orchestral Institute. “It’s about becoming a multifaceted musician ... making the program as accurate and reflective as the current orchestral scene as we can.”

– CARA HEDGEPETH, The Gazette, Monday, June 3, 2013