I was always involved in my high school’s honors chamber orchestra, and participated in multiple regional and all state orchestras. I know there’s the campus one (for non majors), chamber, and philharmonic. What are the differences between the three and which would best suit me?
All three bands can fulfill your Arts general requirement. Campus band is non-audition, and is usually conducted by a grad student in the music department. The musical selections would likely be familiar to you if you had a high-achieving music program for high school. The musicians are all the sort of people who were standouts in high school, but maybe don’t have the time or the desire to sell their soul to band anymore. S2 was in campus band and enjoyed it for the chance to play with less of a time commitment. I don’t know anything about the chamber orchestra, but Philharmonic is the “best” band, as far as visibility, strength of music, and size. They play at The President’s Concert in NYC and are part of Mosaic, a multi-ensemble extravaganza (multiple stages, multiple shifting groups, sells out every year) It is by audition and is competitive. If you’ve been to All-States and have the time, you are the sort of musician that might like Philharmonic, assuming you get in, Some music majors have restrictions about what ensembles they can be in, so don’t assume that because you aren’t in the major, you are at a disadvantage.