Sing With Us
If You Love To Sing, Come Join Us!
Become part of Santa Barbara’s longest running adult chorus made up of about 80 passionate volunteer and professional singers, accepted annually by audition.
Enjoy studying and singing great choral masterworks and diverse modern works, and experience the thrill of performing with an orchestra to appreciative audiences in grand venues such as the Lobero Theatre, the Granada Theatre, and Hahn Hall at the Music Academy, in collaboration with great companies such as the Santa Barbara Symphony and State Street Ballet.
As a Choral Society member you’ll be eligible join the chorus on our international tours. Tour stops have included Prague-Vienna-Budapest; Bavaria and Italy, including singing mass at the Vatican (!); multiple venues in Spain; and a second trip to Italy where we sang the works of famed choral composer Morten Lauridsen in the company of the great composer himself!
During the season we rehearse from 7:00pm – 9:30pm every Wednesday evening in Lehmann Hall at the Music Academy.
See below for additional audition details and to sign up. There are currently openings in every section for general membership, as well as professional singers and adjunct professionals.
AUDITION INFORMATION
When: August 26 and 27, 2023
Where: Music Academy, Lehmann Hall
1070 Fairway Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
AUDITION REQUIREMENTS
Auditions are a way for us to get to know you, and get to know your voice. Auditions are required for participation in the Choral Society on a yearly basis. As we are a semi-professional chorus, singing and sight reading experience is recommended. We are a diverse crowd, and welcome singers of all backgrounds, from the enthusiastic devotee to the seasoned professional.
If you have sung with us before, welcome back! This is an opportunity to come together at the end of the summer to sing with friends and prepare for the upcoming season.
If this is your first time, we are delighted you are auditioning, and look forward to hearing you sing!
Follow this link to reserve your audition time now.
AUDITION RESOURCES
We want your audition to be a success, so we have compiled a list of some helpful resources to prepare you for your upcoming audition with the Choral Society.
Warm Up with Rollo Dillworth
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/
Click here to sign up for a time!
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING YOUR AUDITION
Please arrive 5 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 our Artistic Director JoAnne Wasserman, and her Assistant Greg Davies. 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
Current Choral Society Members will audition in groups of four singers.
New auditions have a one-on-one opportunity to sing with our conductor.
Please note: There is no requirement to perform a prepared solo for these auditions.
Sign up now.
AFTER YOUR AUDITION
All auditionees will receive an email follow-up to your audition.
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.
We look forward to singing with you this year!
Auditions are booking up quickly – sign up here to reserve your spot
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.
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.
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.