Sing With Us
If You Love To Sing, Come Join Us!
Become part of Santa Barbara’s longest established adult community chorus made up of about 70 passionate volunteer and professional singers, accepted annually by audition.
Enjoy studying and singing great choral music, masterworks and diverse modern works, and experience the thrill of performing with an orchestra and professional soloists to appreciative audiences.
As a Choral Society member you’ll be eligible to join the chorus on our occasional international tours. Tour stops have included Prague, Vienna, and Budapest; Bavaria and Italy, including singing mass at the Vatican; multiple venues in Spain; and another trip to Italy where we sang the works of famed choral composer Morten Lauridsen in the company of the great composer himself. The pandemic derailed our last tour plan, but interest is building for another tour.
Our season runs from Labor Day through May, during which we rehearse weekly from 7:00pm – 9:30pm on Wednesday evenings at Music Academy of the West.
See below for additional audition details and to sign up. There are currently openings in every section for general membership, as well as for paid Section Leaders and adjunct professionals.
AUDITION INFORMATION
When: By appointment using the form below.
Where: Music Academy of the West
1070 Fairway Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING YOUR AUDITION
During our season, auditions are conducted by appointment before or after our Wednesday evening rehearsals. Your audition coordinator will advise when you should arrive for your audition.
For a pre-season August audition, please arrive 10 minutes before your audition start time to check in. We suggest you take some time to warm up before you arrive, and bring a bottle of water.
Auditions are conducted by Music Director and Conductor JoAnne Wasserman, and Assistant to the Conductor Becca Clarke. An accompanist is provided.
During you audition, you will be asked to demonstrate the following:
- Ascending and descending scale
- Ascending and descending arpeggio
- Sing a familiar tune in an accessible key
- Sight sing a pre-selected piece of music
Please note: There is no requirement to perform a prepared solo for these auditions.
Current Choral Society Members audition in groups of four or five singers, however current members are not being re-auditioned at this time.
First-time auditionees will have an individual audition, scheduled by our audition coordinator, a longtime member (volunteer) who will contact you by phone or email.
AFTER YOUR AUDITION
Everyone who auditions will receive an email follow-up. If you are selected to join our chorus, you will receive a part assignment and a welcome letter, with more information about our season, our chorus, and our rehearsal and performance schedule.
AUDITION RESOURCES
We want your audition to be a success, so we are offering an optional Audition Workshop on August 13.
We have compiled a list of some helpful resources to prepare you for your upcoming audition with the Choral Society.
Warm Up with Rollo Dilworth
Conductor and composer Rollo Dilworth has guest-conducted The Choral Society and led us in day-long workshop.
Brush Up on Your Music Theory
https://www.musicnotes.com/blog/how-to-read-sheet-music/
Practice Your Sight Singing
https://www.teoria.com/en/exercises/ss.php
General Audition Tips from 6 Stand-Out Chorus Conductors
https://www.musicnotes.com/blog/choral-audition-tips/
Get Inspired
https://www.sbchoral.org/concerts/listen/
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.