Into the Mind - Preparing an Audition Recording

The following was given as an interest session for the 2013 national ACDA conference held in Dallas, Texas.  Into the Mind refers to the conference lecture series given by conductors whose choirs were singing on the conference.  There may have been changes in recent years concerning how certain aspects of the audition processes are organized and accomplished. However, the concepts for successful preparation of audition materials have not changed.  Please remember the following material is copyrighted. Some of this material will appear in my new book, Becoming the Choral Poet, to be published by GIA Music Publishers in 2020. My choirs have sung vetted performances on four national ACDA conferences and six regional (divisional) ACDA conferences. I have also served on four national ACDA audition panels and was asked to serve on two additional national panels for which I could not make their schedules work with my own. I have also served on TMEA audition panels. 

Into the Mind - Preparing an Audition Recording
Wednesday, March 13, 3:15pm 
St Paul United Methodist Church
©2013 by Jerry McCoy

Designing the recording - 3 years of recordings generally totaling a maximum of 15 minutes. 

  • The beauty of the singing and dazzle in the singing must catch the imagination of the jury within the first 20-30 seconds of the recording. The sooner the better.

  • Don’t start the recording with a piece that develops too slowly, has an extended introduction, or an opening extended solo episode.

  • Treat the recording like an imaginative program.

    • Beware of keys centers. Don’t use performances that are all in the same key.

    • Beware of style and composers. Vary the styles of music. Beware of putting the most popular piece of the season on your recording unless it’s a very, very good performance. Anecdote: In the 2008 auditions for the 2009 conference, one of Eric Whitacre's pieces was sung by at least 8 or 9 choirs in one category! Even though it was a fantastic piece, the jury got weary of hearing it.

    • Vary the languages, if possible.

    • Think a year or two in advance in planning what you’ll sing and what will go on your audition recording.

    • All Choirs that make it into the top 25% of rankings sing in tune, achieve rhythmically acuity, and sing attractive literature. The ones that achieve the top 10% of rankings also sing beautiful and arresting musical lines, understand the expressive and descriptive aspects of diction, sing with a rich and focused tone, and move the listener – immediately!

Making the recording

  • Read the guidelines carefully!

  • Proof the recording after you make it. Be certain it plays on someone else’s computer/machinery before you file it with ACDA.

  • Be certain to edit out anything that would identify the choir, especially introductions before the singing. Not doing so will automatically disqualify your recording when the jury hears such an intro.

  • Use the best recording equipment available. If you can afford to so do, have your concerts professionally recorded. The cost may be recouped in part by the sale of recordings. Be certain to pay all royalty fees for any recording you sell!

  • Find a good room for at least one of your annual concerts so that you get the best recording possible. It is very hard for the jury to separate a good choir from a bad room! A bad or overly dry room can highlight or even enhance unsuccessful issues of tuning, ensemble, vocal production, vowels, etc.

  • Tune the piano!

  • In the recent past, there has been a place on the audition form to indicate whether or not the performance is live or edited. There is now some discussion within the EC that we shouldn’t accept edited recordings.

  • Use someone else’s ears. Most conductors are too close to their own performances, forgiving some negative issues and obsessing over others. Ask a trusted, successful choral colleague to help review and select your recordings.

Preparing the performances once you are selected

  • Do research on the rooms in which you will sing. Many choirs do not regularly sing in halls that can seat 2,000+ people. The choir needs to become accustomed to singing in larger halls.

  • Pick literature that fits the performance halls.

  • Consider rearranging your standing positions in order to take advantage of the performance halls. For this conference, we rehearsed in two standing arrangements, one for Meyerson and one for Winspear. We also adapted our vocal colors, articulations, and balances for the two halls. Winspear is much drier than Meyerson. (In 2005, after we had been notified of our selection for the LA conference, a colleague and I travelled to LA to hear a choral performance in Disney Hall and the Cathedral. Doing so gave us deeper insights for programming than we would have otherwise had.)

The Jury Process

-   The jury is comprised of:

  • At least one member of the EC, excluding anyone who has any

input into the upcoming conference.

  • National R&S Chairs, representing a broad spectrum of experience and types of choirs conducted.

  • Other conductors whose choirs have sung on recent national conferences.

  • The National Conference Chair and the Associate Chair, as non- voting/non-speaking attendees.

  • The committee is overseen by the Chair of the Past Presidents Council (non-voting).

  • The auditions are completely blind. Each choir is assigned a number and only introduced as such. Under the new process, the jury is not told who the selected choirs are until after the choirs have been notified and accepted the ACDA invitation to perform.

  • Choirs are heard within categories.

  • Larger categories, such as high school mixed and college/university mixed are often heard by preliminary committees who then forward a minimum of ten to fifteen recordings to the national selection committee. Those prescreening panels are bound by the same rules as the national panel.

  • The choirs are scored by the jury panel within categories. The mechanical ranking is done entirely based upon the scores. The national chair and her/his committee then select choirs from the rankings based upon the needs of the conference.

In so many ways, the selection of a choir is dictated by the tastes and experience levels of the jurors.  As we know, across the globe there is no single, universal rule of taste that sets one choir above another.  It’s all about how the choir's recordings capture the imagination of the listener.  

Beth Beauchamp