Photo by Xpression by Kim

Auditions for the 2020-2021 Choir Season will be held on June 1 & 2 in the choir room of the Luyken Fine Arts Center on the Bethel College Campus!

NCCC is open to students with unchanged treble voices entering grades 4—8 (public, private, or home school) living in Newton & surrounding communities

AUDITION SIGN-UP FORM

If you’re interested in joining the Newton Community Children’s Choir, please sign up for an audition time with the form above!  If you have any questions about the group please contact our Artistic Director, Jill Siebert, at newtonccchoir@gmail.com.

Auditions will be held on Tuesday, June 1, and Wednesday, June 2, from 4 pm to 6 pm. Singers will be assigned a 15 minute time slot based on their availability indicated in the form. If you are unavailable during all of these times, please fill out the form accordingly and we will send an email to find an alternate time! A parent/guardian should accompany each singer to their audition.

These will be small group auditions (groups of 2-3, spaced out)! If your child would like to be in the same group as a friend or family member, fill out a form for each singer, and simply write that into the final question and I will try to make it happen!

Those who were accepted into our choir last season (20-21), which was cancelled due to the pandemic, are AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED into our upcoming season’s choir – no audition necessary.

Audition Overview from our Artistic Director:

The auditions will last less than 10-15 minutes, and I’ll be checking first and foremost for pitch matching, while also assessing choral tone, vocal strength, and part independence. There will be 3 short parts to each audition – 

1. Each singer will sing be asked to sing 20-30 seconds of a simple song of their choosing (unaccompanied) – Happy Birthday, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, Skidamarink, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, or Home on the Range would be great options if you’re not sure what else to choose! I’m just interested in hearing your singing voice!

2. Pattern Echo – I will play a few 3-4 note patterns on the piano, and singers will echo them back (on “la”).

3. Row, row, row your boat – in a round! 
** There will also be a bit of time to talk through any questions you might have about the choir!

As an organization, we are attempting to find the right voices for the group while also ensuring that students feel comfortable and assured during the audition process. While there are sometimes opportunities for solos in this ensemble, it is by no means a requirement, and for that reason I prefer to avoid basing membership solely on solo performance. However, due to the nature of the audition process, auditionees will have to sing a small amount on their own. Please remind your student(s) that nervousness is totally normal and that I am listening to their singing voice, not to their nerves 🙂 A deep breath is great practice when the nerves begin to take over!

We hope 6:30-8:00 on Monday evenings is clear for your child because that is when our rehearsals are throughout the school year.  If you have any questions about the choir or audition process, please email me at newtonccchoir@gmail.com – I would love to hear from you!

About NCCC: 

The Newton Community Children’s Choir is an auditioned choir of fourth through eighth grade treble voices. Made up of students from Newton and surrounding communities, NCCC is an excellent opportunity for children of all ages and levels who love to sing!

Auditions take place in the spring/summer between seasons. Interest, enthusiasm, and potential for learning are highly considered in the audition process.