Choir
What greater self-expression than raising voices to the rafters in a community of song? With five of the country’s leading choral directors as faculty, the choral program fills two missions: leading performances and training the next generation of conductors. In repertoire of Schütz to Stravinsky, Porter to Sondheim, and Gregorian Chant to Gospel, UIUC offers more than glorious singing. Its top-notch faculty provides the first-rate instruction and scholarship that produces choral leaders. Choral students also benefit from the excellent studio training offered by the UIUC voice faculty, courses in instrumental conducting, enormous library resources and archives, and solid training in music theory and musicology. We had the nation’s first doctoral program in choral music, and consider our choral director graduates so important that we invited one of them, David Brunner (DMA ’89), as graduation speaker in 2002. Come add your voice and develop your singing, musicianship, conducting, and esprit; then go on from here to lead others in professional, community, or church choirs, black and swing choruses, contemporary music, public schools, or your own university choir.
Audition for a Choral Ensemble:
The choral department is implementing a new policy requiring yearly auditions by ALL students interested in participating in a choral ensemble. Auditions are required for all choral ensembles and are held according to the schedule below. The following groups host competitive auditions that will be heard by the choral faculty as a whole: UI Chamber Singers, UI Concert Choir, UI Women’s Glee, UI Varsity Men’s Glee Club, and UI Oratorio Society. Students wishing to participate in Black Chorus will take a placement audition administered at the first rehearsal. Non-music majors wishing to participate in either University Chorus or Illini Women may take a placement-only audition administered by graduate choral teaching assistants. Audition requirements for all auditions are taken from Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Haydn’s Creation. In addition, students will be asked to demonstrate sight-singing ability and vocalize for appropriate voice placement.
Please refer to the schedule below to find the appropriate audition time:
UI Chamber Singers, UI Concert Choir, UI Women’s Glee, UI Varsity Men’s Glee Club and UI Oratorio Society:
- New students (freshman or transfer): Saturday, August 23rd, 2-5pm (4-411 KCPA)
- Students with last names beginning A-H: Sunday, August 24th, 5-9pm (4-411 KCPA)
- Students with last names beginning I-O: Monday, August 25th, 5-9pm (4-411 KCPA)
- Students with last names beginning P-Z: Tuesday, August 26th, 5-9pm (4-411 KCPA)
Black Chorus: Monday, August 25th, 6-8:30pm (Room 4-411 of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
University Chorus or Illini Women: Tuesday, August 26th, 2-5pm and Wednesday, August 27th, 2-5pm (these auditions will be coordinated by Andrea Solya and held in the Choral TA Office, Room 4-408 of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
If you are unable to make the appropriate audition time, a limited number of late auditions will be heard on Thursday, August 28th from 3-5pm and 6-9pm in Room 4-411 of Krannert.
Audition results will be posted by 5pm on August 29th outside the Choral Office (4-401 Krannert). If you have any questions, please contact Professor Fred Stoltzfus, fstoltzf@illinois.edu.
Sign ups for auditions will be available on the door of 4-411 KCPA by Friday, August 22nd.
Audition Excerpts
Please click the following links to download both sets of excerpts to be used for all choral auditions: