Auditioning for NCO

Auditions for 2026

The next opportunity to audition for NCO's Projects and National programmes will be for NCO 2026. We will open auditions for NCO 2026 in May 2025. If you'd like to keep in touch with us and hear when auditions open, please join our Auditions Mailing List.

Please find a brief summary of auditionee requirements below. We will be providing full details regarding auditions when they open:

Projects

Projects is open to children aged 8-13 as of 31st August 2025 who play an orchestral instrument.

In general we ask that all children are playing to at least approximately Grade 3 standard on their instrument unless they play Flute, Violin, or Cello. For these instruments we ask that children are playing to at least approximately Grade 4 standard.

Nationals

Nationals is open to children aged 11-13 as of 31st August 2025 who play an orchestral instrument.

We recommend that children audition for NCO are playing to approximately the following grades, depending on their age groups.

Aged 11 as of 31st August 2025: Grade 4 and above

Aged 12 as of 31st August 2025: Grade 5 and above

Aged 13 as of 31st August 2025: Grade 6 and above