UD choral ensembles announce auditions

4:48 p.m., Aug. 25, 2008--Auditions will be held at the beginning of the fall semester for the four major choral ensembles at the University of Delaware, which offer a variety of options to students interested in singing--the University Chorale, a highly competitive, award-winning ensemble; Schola Cantorum, a town and gown ensemble; the University Singers women's choir; and the Concert Choir, a mixed voices choir.

Auditions will be held from 6-9 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 2; Wednesday, Sept. 3; Monday, Sept. 8; and Tuesday, Sept. 9, in Room 118 of the Amy E. duPont Music Building.

To schedule an audition, send an e-mail message from the Web page at [http://music.udel.edu/udchoirs/pages/contactUDchoirs.html]. When e-mailing to schedule an audition, please provide an approximate time that you wish to audition and you will be sent a response with the exact time. Students also can sign up in person on a form at the door of Room 118.

The audition will take 5-7 minutes with work on:

  • Vocal range--There will be a series of vocal exercises to find out the lowest and highest useable register of your singing voice;
  • Tonal memory--A series of pitches will be played at the piano, after which you will be asked to sing them back. This is to see how well you hear difficult musical passages.;
  • Sight-reading--You will be given a simple sight-reading example simply to demonstrate how well you are able to read music. The objective is to keep going, no matter what happens. Even if you don't think you read music, simply follow the notes up when the notes go up and down when they go down.; and
  • Vocal quality--If we haven't been able to determine enough about the overall quality of your voice by this point, we might ask you to sing a simple melody, such as "Happy Birthday" or "My Country 'Tis of Thee" without accompaniment. You do not need to prepare an audition piece for this hearing.

Students will be asked which ensemble they are most interested in joining. If all things are considered equal, every effort will be made to honor that request.

Auditions results will be posted at Room 118 no later than Wednesday, Sept. 10. Results will not be posted online.