Written by Mary Dan Eades on June 12, 2015
Annual auditions for new singers who wish to sing with the Santa Barbara Choral Society have been set for August 22 and 23, 2014. Read more here about opportunities to sing and how to apply to audition to sing in our 69th Season.
As many of our singers will attest, singing with SBCS is one of the best gifts you can give your adult self. Being bathed every Wednesday night in the energy generated by the sound waves of 100 people singing at once is an incomparably uplifting and healthful experience. There’s nothing like that wall of sound. Couple that with the thrill of performing on Santa Barbara’s premier stages–the Granada and the Lobero Theatre–and touring to sing in exciting and historic venues around the world and you more fully understand why singers come back year after year and, yes, submit to the audition process to do it.
Santa Barbara Choral Society and State Street Ballet perform Carmina Burana
Next season promises to be an exciting one…Carmina Burana is back!
Our 68th Season begins in October with a 50th Anniversary performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, coupled with Carl Orff’s CARMINA BURANA staged at The Granada, in collaboration with Santa Barbara Symphony, State Street Ballet! Then in December our popular Hallelujah Project family holiday concert returns for the third year to the historic Lobero Theatre. In March 2016, the chorus will perform Handel’s Messiah, Part I and less-often performed selections of Parts II and III, as a kick off to the beloved work’s 275th Anniversary year. (It was first performed in Dublin in April 1742.) The final concert of the season, in May, will be A World of Song, featuring the collection of short pieces we will take on tour in June to Italy. The Italy 2016 International Performance Tour will also include an orchestral repertoire for two concerts, which pairs Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna and the Mozart Requiem. A special bonus: Dr. Lauridsen will accompany us on tour!
How to Audition
Annual auditions, arranged by appointment, are handled individually, privately or semi-privately, for new singers and in groups of usually 3 to 5, in seasons thereafter. And though you don’t have to be a professionally trained musician, you must be a solid singer with some choral singing experience, even if long dormant. The auditions involve singing scales to determine your range and voice quality, a short bit of sight reading, and demonstrating an understanding of rhythm and musical notation. As auditions go, Artistic Director and Conductor JoAnne Wasserman makes them as unthreatening and nurturing as they can possibly be.
Tenors are always in great demand (as is the case for almost all adult choruses) but strong singers in all voice parts are welcome. Additionally, there are paid section leader positions available, by special audition, to professional singers or those degreed in music, especially vocal performance.
Come join us! You’ll be glad you did! Email us at auditions@sbchoral.org for more information.
American baritone, Ralph Cato has travelled the world extensively, telling stories in song with his warm, clarion baritone voice.
Tenor, Benjamin Brecher has performed over fifty operatic roles with many of the world’s most prestigious opera companies, specializing in the high lying lyric tenor repertoire. He has performed 16 roles with New York City Opera alone. Career highlights include performances with Opera Orchestra of New York, L’Opera de Nice, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, L’Opera de Montreal, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among many others. His orchestral solo repertoire includes Mozart, Handel, Orff, Bach, Haydn, as well as many performances of Britten. In 2000 he began performing the great Irish Tenor songs in a concert produced for him entitled A Celtic Celebration, Twenty years later, the show has become a North American hit with performances with 45 Symphonies in North America. Ben continues his discography having added his twelfth recording in 2016 Forgotten Liszt, with pianist Robert Koenig, and will record a new release in 2022 entitled “Three Centuries of Thomas Moore” including the music of Britten, Berlioz, and Sarah Gibson on MSR Classics. He is a Professor of Voice at University of California Santa Barbara, where he has served as the Head of Voice.
Tracy Van Fleet is pleased to return to the Santa Barbara Choral Society. As a soloist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lüneburg Symphony in Germany, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río in Mexico, Pasadena Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Los Angeles Bach Festival, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic, USC Symphony and Chorus, and others. She has had many appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Opera Pacific, San Diego Opera and Opera Colorado.
Born and raised in Southern California, April Amante is a versatile soprano with expertise and facility in repertoire spanning from early music to contemporary musical theater.