Audition Guidelines and Materials

Auditions

Please see this link for audio links of this year's quartet as well as the scales - "Lo How A Rose."

This year's solo is Deep River - please see the four below PDFs separated by voice part

Teachers can download the student auditions invoice and send it in with payment for all students:

Part 1: Tonal Patterns (Scales and Arpeggios)

All pitches are digitally produced on the audition CD. The keys (starting notes) for the tonal patterns for each voice part are given in the table below.

All tonal patterns are to be sung legato, on the syllable ‘ah’. All notes should be of equal length, except that the last note may be held slightly.

All tonal patterns are to be sung at a moderately slow tempo of about MM=80 for each note. The tempo will not be given by the judge. After the CD plays the pitch, the student will start singing by him/herself.

The tonal patterns will be sung in the following order:
- Low Major Scale: All singers sing a descending scale, starting on the top note. Sing down the scale, take a breath, and beginning on the octave below, sing up the scale to the starting note.
- High Major Scale: Sing up the major scale to the octave above, take a breath, and beginning on the octave above, sing down the scale to the starting note.
- Chromatic Scale: Sing up the chromatic scale to the fifth above by half steps, a total of 8 notes, take a breath, and beginning on the fifth above, sing down the chromatic scale to the starting note.
- Arpeggio: Sing the notes of the major triad, starting with the root, then the third, fifth, octave, tenth, and back down to the octave, fifth, third, and root, in one breath. For a starting note of C, the notes would be C-E-G-high C-high E, high C-G-E-C. If the arpeggio begins on a note too low for a Tenor 1 only, the student may be allowed to start on a higher note and only sing the octave.

Part 2: Quartet

Each student will sing from memory his/her part in the selected quartet excerpt. Copies of the quartet excerpt with performance instructions are enclosed.

The students will be accompanied by a tape recording of the other three voice parts and accompaniment if applicable. A CD recording of all four parts, similar to the CD that will be used in the audition rooms will be played in the warm-up room.

If the quartet is unaccompanied, the pitch and starting cue will be given on the CD. The judges will not conduct or give the pitch or any cues to the student. The pitch given on the CD will be the tonic note of the first chord. This may not be the first note for each voice part. Part of the singer’s preparation is to secure his/her starting note, given the tonic.

If the quartet is accompanied, the student will secure his/her starting note from the instrumental introduction.

A singer who gets a false start on a tonal pattern or the quartet may be granted a second chance by the judges. A false start may be penalized, however the decision will be left up to the judges. Remain consistent throughout the evening.

No second chance is given for wrong notes or missed entrances within the quartet after the initial entrance. Be consistent throughout the audition process.