Honors Choir

Selection and fall workshop

While the selection of Honors Choir nominees is left to the discretion of each director, it is intended that the very best singers, who are the best readers and performers regardless of their age, be considered for this honor. Eight potential nominees, an SSAATTBB octet, may accompany the director to the fall workshop.

Audition guidelines

In order to become an Honors Choir member, each candidate must successfully complete a February  audition at Western Michigan University (usually the first or second Monday). The SWMVF Committee has created the following guidelines. Each school may send up to 20 singers. Schools are encouraged to bring male singers.

Audition details

To successfully complete the audition, each student must exhibit the ability to sing the assigned music using good tone quality and intonation. While memorization is not required, thorough preparation is critical. The nominees will audition by voice part before a panel including Western Michigan University vocal/choral faculty members and high school choral directors. These high school directors will hear their own students but will not adjudicate them. The students will not be identified by school and are instructed not to wear clothing identifying their school. Two blocks of auditions will be held from 4:30–5:30 p.m. and 5:30–6:30 p.m. Each block will include two sessions in two rooms. Basses (Room A) and Tenors (Room B) will be auditioned from 4:30–4:50 or 5:30–5:50. Altos (Room A) and Sopranos (Room B) will be auditioned from 4:50–5:30 or 5:50–6:30. Audition sessions for soprano and alto voices are longer due to the traditionally higher number of nominees. Ten minutes will be used at the start of each session for warm up and practice. Schools may request to have students audition in the 4:30 or 5:30 block and should plan to be on site for 60 minutes. Piano will be used only to assist the auditions which are intended to be mostly a cappella. A pianist will be provided by WMU.

Required rehearsals

In order to remain in the Honors Choir program, each selected student must attend all scheduled rehearsals at Western Michigan University. These include late afternoon rehearsals on the two Mondays preceding the festival and two Wednesday rehearsals on the day preceding the festival.

Attendance requirement

No exceptions are made to the above attendance requirements.