10 Posts in 10 Hours #5: Auditions Schmauditions

Here are a few articles from the last while on the subject of auditioning for singers:

First of all, a first person account of going through the process from an aspiring choral singer on a mission to infiltrate her favorite school of music:

Finally, my name was called and it was time to go in. I was surprised by the number of people in the room. They were a mix of grad students and professors, probably ten or eleven people in all. I brought my music over to the accompanist, realizing as I did so that it had come off the copier slightly askew and that it was hard to tell what a couple of notes were. "I hope this is readable," I apologized as I handed it to him.

Erica Hansen in the Deseret News hosted a panel of theatre experts in Here are some audition tips to get you a callback instead of a brushoff. Although the article is from the musical theatre point of view, there is still plenty of great information for classical singers as well.

Kim Witman on Wolf Trap Opera has recently written an incredible amount of information on auditions, much of it in response to reader inquiries. Articles worth a gander include Reruns Welcome, In the Audition Room, Naked Toes and Aria Advice, Opening the Screen Door, and More Aria Questions and Audition Guidelines. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Kim for being the first person ever to link to the CPB in November 2005.

More audition stuff on CPB:

Audition Strategies for Singers
Am I Too Soft?
Professional-level Singing and That Certain Je ne said quoi
The 2008 Aria Frequency List