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 Haydn’s Creation. In addition, students will be asked to demonstrate sight-singing ability and vocalize for appropriate voice placement.
Spring auditions will be held on Monday, December 15th from 1:30-3:00pm. A sign-up sheet will be available on the door of Room 4-408 of Krannert on December 8th.
Audition Excerpts
Please click the following link to download the excerpts to be used for all choral auditions: