Audition Process

We believe in collaborative work, and that spirit carries over to our auditions, which we view as a way to discover what strengths you may be able to bring to our music-making. To help set you up for success, here is what takes place during a typical audition, and how you might best prepare ahead of time.

At your audition, Artistic Director Erin Freeman will guide you through the following five steps to evaluate your voice and your musicianship.

1. VOCALIZING: 

Through the use of vocal warmup exercises, she will listen to the range of your voice, to see what voice part would be best for you, and to evaluate elements like vocal color, intonation, and breath control. To prepare, here are some helpful warmup exercises, led by the Artistic Director herself, so you can get a sense of her conducting style!

2. CHORAL EXCERPT: 

You’ll be asked to sing a short excerpt from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers (with your part doubled on the piano), to evaluate accuracy of notes and pitches, flexibility of sound, and attention to text details. The excerpt in question (measures 1–49 of “Laudate Pueri” from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers) can be found here, and to help you prepare, here are some useful resources:

‍CYBERBASS learning aid‍ • FULL RECORDING • ONSCREEN SCORE FOR REHEARSING: ALL PARTS‍; SOPRANO‍; ALTO‍; TENOR;‍ BASS

3. EAR TRAINING/TONAL MEMORY: 

The Artistic Director will play a series of 5 or 6 notes and ask you to sing them back on a neutral syllable like “Doo,” to evaluate not just note accuracy, but also the ability to overcome an initial mistake and be coached to fix it. To prepare, here is a great online ear training tool—select “melodies,” and every time you press play you’ll hear a new five-note tune.

4. TEXT: 

The Artistic Director will ask you to speak a few lines of French from Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine, to evaluate your ability to repeat sounds accurately. Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be perfect! We expect a bit of coaching to be needed in the audition. Here is the excerpt (from the very beginning of the piece), and its translation:

Verbe égal au Très-Haut, notre unique espérance, Jour éternel de la terre et des cieux,

De la paisible nuit nous rompons le silence:  Divin Sauveur, jette sur nous les yeux.

(Word of the Highest, our only hope, Eternal day of earth and the heavens,

We break the silence of the peaceful night; Saviour Divine, cast your eyes upon us!)

And to help with preparation, here are some useful resources:

Cantique de Jean Racine, French diction for choirs

Cantique de Jean Racine by Gabriel Fauré

Faure Cantique Pronunciation Guide.pdf

5. RHYTHM: 

The Artistic Director will ask you to perform the rhythm from a score that you’ll be given when you arrive for your audition, so that you’ll have time to review it before entering the audition room. We’ll be listening for note accuracy, a steady tempo, and the ability to keep going even if you make a mistake. To prepare, hereis a fun tool that lets you practice various rhythms. Set the difficulty to medium, and then to hard. Somewhere between those two levels will the level of our excerpt.