We want our auditions process to be easy and accessible so that you can concentrate on the most important thing - preparing to give your best! Once you've booked an audition, it's time to make sure you're as prepared as possible. Here's a run-down of what you can expect to happen as part of your audition, which will be roughly 15mins long:

• Perform one own-choice song - from memory, unaccompanied
• Vocal exercises 
• Musicianship - listening tests & score-reading 
• Short informal interview 

---

Warming up your voice

It's good idea to warm up your voice directly before your audition slot so that we're hearing your voice at it's best. Here's a video from one of our vocal coaches, Nicki, which you might find useful. You might also want to have a water bottle handy during your audition.

Perform one own-choice song (from memory) unaccompanied 

The song that you perform is your own choice. Choose something that best demonstrates your abilities. It doesn’t have to be 'classical', but if you choose a musical theatre or pop song you need to demonstrate a strong and sound vocal technique.

The song must be performed without accompaniment and should be a piece that you know really well and that offers a suitable level of musical challenge, rather than something overly ambitious. We strongly recommend you learn your song from memory so you can communicate through your performance. 

We may only need to hear an excerpt of your song, so don’t be put off if we ask you to stop before the end. 

Vocal assessment

After you have performed your prepared song, you will be offered some vocal exercises to demonstrate your tone and range. This will allow us to assess your responsiveness and vocal flexibility. You will be guided through these exercises by the audition panel.

Musicianship - listening tests & score-reading 

You'll also be asked to demonstrate your aural and reading skills, using the shared screen function on Zoom. The level of challenge will depend on your age and experience.

Examples may include: 

• singing a simple unaccompanied melody
• singing a short unprepared excerpt from a choral score
• identifying musical symbols, details and markings such as key/time signatures, intervals, tempo and articulation markings
• listening tests, including interval and pitch recognition

Short informal interview 

We’d like to talk to you informally about yourself, why you’ve auditioned for the National Youth Choir, what you enjoy about your singing and what your plans are for the future. Please be as honest and enthusiastic as you can! 

---

How do the online auditions work?

• You will receive a ‘Zoom’ invitation via the registered email address on the ‘MyNYCGB’ account. This will include a link to log onto Zoom, the meeting ID and password
• Please log onto Zoom 15 minutes prior to your audition slot, where you will be entered into the waiting room
• One of our friendly administrators will grant you access into the zoom session about 5mins before your allocated time and will help you check your visual/audio set-up
• The administrator will grant you access into the audition room once the audition staff are ready. The music staff in your audition will lead you through the session, so you'll always know what to do next. 
• Once you have completed your audition, you can click on the ‘leave meeting’ button on the bottom right hand side of the screen

---

QUESTIONS? 

If you have any questions about the auditions for the National Youth Choir, please contact Rebecca Anderson on [email protected]