Written by Mary Dan Eades on June 19, 2017
Here’s why:
You’ll be a part of Santa Barbara’s longest running adult chorus (founded in 1948) made up of 100+ passionate amateur and professional singers from diverse backgrounds, accepted annually by audition.
You’ll enjoy studying great choral masterworks (and other interesting music) and the thrill of performing with orchestra to appreciative audiences in grand venues, including The Lobero and The Granada, and in collaboration with such companies as Santa Barbara Symphony and State Street Ballet.
You’ll be eligible to tour with the chorus to exciting international locations. Recent tours have included Prague-Vienna-Budapest; Bavaria and Italy (including singing mass at the Vatican); all across Spain; and most recently a return to Italy (Naples, Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Lecco) to sing works of Lauridsen in the company of the great composer himself!
During the season (September through May/June) we rehearse each Wednesday evening from 7-9:30pm in Lehman Hall at the Music Academy of the West.
How to Apply
Regularly scheduled auditions are held in August, by appointment.
All singers must audition with the Conductor initially and annually. Audition requirements include evaluation of pitch, scale singing, multi-part singing, sight reading for notes and rhythm, and general basic music understanding. Please click on the application link below in the category that best applies to you.
Here are the categories in which singers may apply to join the Choral Society:
- Regular Membership:Anyone 18 years of age or older may audition to join as a regular member. Once accepted for the season, members make an annual tax-deductible donation of $225 to the chorus and are eligible to sing in all concerts designated for “full chorus,” vote in all elections, and be part of the planning and execution of concerts and events, including tours, to the extent desired. Payment options (and dues scholarships) available to those who pass auditions for whom the dues contribution would create financial hardship. Please contact auditions@sbchoral.org for application information for Regular Membership.
- Scholarship Singer Membership:Open to high school students 16 and up, who are recommended for audition by their high school choral directors and who pass the Conductor’s audition, or any adult singer (qualified by conductor’s audition) who might be unable to make the annual membership donation. The annual membership donation for Scholarship Singers is subsidized in whole or in part through our Singer Scholarship Program. The membership donation for all student Scholarship Singers is paid automatically by the Singer Scholarship program; adults who apply are handled on a case-by-case basis. For application information for the Singer Scholarship program, please contact us at auditions@sbchoral.org
- Professional Singers:The chorus is comprised mainly of qualified singer volunteers, plus a small core of professional-singers, who are employed by SBCS to lead and mentor their voice sections throughout the season. Section leader positions are filled annually in August in all voice parts by private audition with the Conductor. These paid, professional singers who constitute our Music Staff do not have a vote in elections. For more information on singing with the Choral Society as a professional singer, please submit a resume along with an email requesting consideration to (Attn: Artistic Committee Chair, Jeffery Warlick) at auditions@sbchoral.org
- Ad Hoc Professionals:On occasion, expansion of the chorus for a particular work may prompt the need for additional strong voices (professional singers) in some or all voice parts. These singers typically join in the rehearsal cycle for a given concert, complete the concert cycle alongside the regular membership, then depart. They do not have a vote in elections. Please direct your request to become an Ad Hoc Professional to (Attn: Artistic Committee Chair, Jeffery Warlick) at auditions@sbchoral.org.
We’d like to thank our online media sponsor for helping us to promote our auditions:
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.