(Frequently
Asked Questions)
General Information:
What is the process of earning a spot in the All East
and/or All State choirs?
Registration Questions:
What are the eligibility qualifications to begin the
process?
What are the required fees and forms?
Preparation for Auditions:
How will I know my assigned audition time?
Who decides what time I will audition?
How are the special audition time requests handled?
Can I exchange my time with someone else or get my
assigned time changed?
What are the initial audition materials?
How do I know which vocal part to prepare?
Do I have to sing the same part as I sing in my school
choir?
If an audition piece is in a foreign language, do I
have to sing the foreign text?
Audition Details:
What is the time frame of the auditions?
Could I be called earlier or later than my scheduled time?
What should I wear to the auditions?
Singer’s Audition:
What will happen in the warm-up room?
What will happen while I wait for my turn outside
the audition room?
What will happen in the audition itself?
What if I make a mistake or fail to start in the right
place?
What happens if I am sick on the initial audition
date?
What happens if I miss my audition?
How will I be judged in the audition?
Why are the highest and lowest scores thrown out?
Do the judges make any comments about my audition?
Will I find out my scores right after my audition?
Will my scores be posted publicly?
Making All East or All
State:
How high do I have to score to make All East?
What does it mean if I am an Alternate for a choir?
How high do I need to score to make All State?
Accompanist Auditions:
What
music do accompanists need to prepare?
If I
make it as an All East accompanist, am I still eligible for All State?
What will happen during my Accompanist audition?
Will
I receive a numerical score?
How many accompanists will be chosen?
If I am
selected as an accompanist, what happens?
What is round two of the audition?
While
we as
The
process of initial audition followed by screening audition allows ETVA to
identify a pool of talented students in the initial audition and to determine by
the subsequent screening audition that these students have put in the
preparation necessary to achieve maximum advantage from the guest conductor,
his/her rehearsals, and the final performance.
·
A student must
first meet the eligibility qualifications.
·
If the student is
eligible, the student’s choral director must then submit the appropriate forms
and fees by the appropriate deadlines.
·
Once the forms
and fees are submitted, the student will be given a time for the first step of
the process, the initial audition, and the student will be asked to prepare the
audition materials.
·
If the student
scores well enough on the initial audition, they will be assigned a set of
literature to prepare for one of the All East ensembles and a date by which the
literature must be prepared.
·
On the assigned
date, the student must pass a screening audition to prove that the literature
is prepared. After passing the screening audition, the student may participate
in All East.
·
After completing
All East, students who scored high enough on the initial audition and who
successfully completed All East will be given a set of literature to prepare
for
·
On the date of
the
·
On successful
completion of the
·
The student must
be in grades 10 – 12.
·
Female students
must be willing to audition as Sopranos or Altos, i.e. female tenors are not
allowed.
·
The student must
be receiving at least a half-unit of credit in a regularly scheduled choral
performance ensemble at the school where their permanent transcript is kept. (Note: If the student is homeschooled,
you still must be a member of a regularly scheduled choral performance ensemble
that has been approved by the ETVA Executive Board.)
·
The student’s
choral director must be a member in good standing of the East TN Vocal
Association (ETVA), TN Music Education Association (TMEA), and the Music
Educators National Conference (MENC).
·
The student’s
choral director must be willing to approve his/her participation in the
auditions.
If
a school has no choral program, or if a choral director refuses or is unable to
sponsor an otherwise qualified student, another director or teacher may sponsor
the student with these conditions:
·
The school’s
high school institutional fee and student’s fee must be paid.
·
The student must
have a teacher/sponsor who is a member of MENC, TMEA, and ETVA. The
teacher/sponsor may be a teacher at another school.
·
The
teacher/sponsor will be responsible for the student’s registration and
transportation.
·
For each student
who auditions, a fee of $10.00 must be paid. Should a student be auditioning as
both a singer and an accompanist, only one fee is required. In addition, each
school must pay a $25.00 institutional fee.
·
Teachers/sponsors
are responsible for registering their students online at www.etva.org. Notification and instructions will be posted
on the ETVA website and an e-mail reminder will be sent to directors shortly
after the school year begins. Once the
registration window closes, the Executive Secretary will invoice the director
at each participating school for the number of registered students.
·
A student who has
a conflicting school activity on audition day may request a special audition
time in the morning or afternoon of audition day by completing a request form.
These forms are available online on the ETVA website. The request forms must be
submitted at the time of registration.
Within
a few days of the registration deadline, a list of audition times will be
posted on the ETVA website
A
computer assigns the times randomly as the registration forms are processed.
These times are scrambled to ensure impartiality.
When
a special audition time request is received, it is filed in order of receipt
for priority of assignment. The Executive Board of ETVA rules on whether to
grant or deny each request. If the request is granted, those students are not
scrambled, but are assigned a time as close to their requested time as possible
in the order in which their requests were received.
No,
once posted, the times may only be changed in the event of an emergency, with
special permission from the Executive Board.
The
initial audition materials consist of three pieces selected by the Executive
Board. They are drawn from the
literature to be performed at All East by the SATB, Men’s, and Women’s choirs.
The specific titles will be listed on the ETVA website. Each student will
prepare his/her part on two of the three designated pieces, with all students
preparing the SATB piece, all males preparing the Men’s piece, and all females
preparing the Women’s piece.
The
student’s vocal part (Soprano 1 or 2, Alto 1 or 2, Tenor 1 or 2, Bass 1 or 2)
must be declared in the registration process. Once registered, this part cannot
be changed and will follow the student all the way to All
State should he/she succeed that far. Therefore, the choral director should
assist the student in deciding which vocal part to prepare.
No.
You should sing the part that best fits your individual voice.
Yes,
if the piece is going to be performed in that language at All East. Generally,
the pieces will be performed in the language in which the composer set the
text. If there is a question, contact a member of the ETVA Executive Board for
clarification.
The
initial audition is always held on the first Saturday in October.
Auditions
will be held in the middle area, (
The
first auditions in each vocal part will occur at 9:00 AM. Teachers will be
called to a meeting prior to the auditions. The time of this meeting will be
set by the Executive Board and announced via the website online calendar and
bulletins. The length of the day will depend on the number of students
auditioning on a voice part. Generally all auditions are completed by around
4:00 PM.
Each
student’s singing audition lasts for 3 minutes. Accompanist auditions last for
15 minutes.
Yes.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to be precise on the times. Unforeseen
circumstances could cause the auditions to run late or early. You may be called
as early as an hour before your scheduled time. You may be called any time
after your scheduled time.
All
students are required to be in the warm-up room from one hour before their
audition time until they are called to audition. (Students whose audition times
occur from 9:00 to 9:45 AM should be present in the warm-up room at 8:45 AM.)
The
only regulations of dress code are that students may not wear anything that
would indicate their school or their name to the judges. Previous All East or
In
the warm-up room, the warm-up directors will play complete recordings of all
three audition titles. These recordings will be made from the same source as
that used to create the audition tracks used in the judging rooms, and there
will be the same tempo, key and sound as those tracks. In the event of an
emergency, the Executive Board may authorize the use of a recording in the
warm-up room which comes from a different source. In such a case, the students
will be notified in the warm-up room. All the students in the room will be
allowed to sing along with the accompaniment. Runners will come into the room
and call for up to ten students at a time from each voice part to go to the
waiting area outside the judging room. Also, the warm-up room directors will go
over the specific instructions for each section’s audition passages, including
what you will hear to get your pitch and to set the tempo.
The
runners will confirm your ID number (which is not necessary for you to know)
and record it on your judges’ score sheets. If you have any questions about
where you start and stop on each piece, you should make sure it is clear before
you enter the audition room.
You
will be escorted into the audition room by one of the runners. There may be a
music stand for you to use if you wish. The head judge or the CD operator
should greet you, and let you know when the judges are ready to hear you sing.
The CD operator will start the music and the head judge will conduct your first
entrance on each piece. The judge will NOT conduct the entire audition section,
only the very first vocal entrance of your part. You will sing sections from
both pieces, and after finishing; the head judge, CD operator, or the runner
will dismiss you.
If
you make a mistake you should go on as quickly as possible. If you miss an
entrance, you should start singing as soon as you realize where you are in the
music. If you realize you are ahead or behind the CD, listen briefly and resume
singing correctly as soon as possible. Everyone makes mistakes, and no one will
sing a perfect audition. Don’t let your mistakes throw you – keep singing!
It
is an unfortunate fact of life that singers are often sick in the fall.
However, the audition process is so complex and requires so many participants
that it is not practical to have a make up session. If you are sick on the
audition date, we suggest you go ahead and audition if you are physically
capable of singing an audition. We do not offer any make up auditions or
special exemptions.
If
a student misses the call for their audition, they may be allowed to do their
audition at the end of the day depending on the reason they missed the original
audition. The Executive Board will discuss each case and determine which
reasons are acceptable. Those that are accepted will be allowed to audition at
the end of the day.
When
you enter the audition room there will be five judges in the room. Each of
these judges will be scoring your audition but only three of the five sets of
scores will actually count. You are judged in six categories, which are
weighted in value. These are:
·
Pitch (24%)
·
Tone (21%)
·
Rhythm (19%)
·
Technical
Accuracy (13%)
·
Diction (12%)
·
Musicality (11%)
That
means the judge may award you up to 24 points for pitch, 21 points for tone
etc. The total points for each category are added together to make one judge’s
score. The scores of the judge giving you the highest score and the judge
giving you the lowest score are thrown out. The total of the three remaining
judges are added to make up your total audition score. A perfect score would be
300 points.
We
eliminate the highest and lowest judges’ scores to avoid favoritism or
discrimination. A judge that knows you may score you very high or very low,
regardless of how you actually performed in your audition. Alternately, a
particular judge may be grading every one much higher or lower than other
judges in the same room. By removing the top and bottom scores, you are more
likely to have an accurate rating of your audition.
There
is space on the audition sheet for judges to make comments. We encourage the
judges to comment on your performance, but they may or may not do so at their
discretion.
No,
we generally judge between 600 – 700 students on a typical audition day. With
five judges’ sheets per student, that is a total of between 3000 to 3500 sheets
to run through the scanner. Also once the scores are calculated the Executive
Board has to look over the results and decide where to draw the cut-off lines
for each voice part. Generally, the results will not be available until later
in the next week.
This
depends on your individual teacher. Once the Executive Board is through with
the score sheets, each director is sent the actual judges’ sheets for each of
their auditioning students along with a printout explaining the scores.
Individual teachers may return your judges’ sheets to you at their own
discretion.
It
is ETVA policy to NOT publicize the entire election results. We do not want the
students who have become eligible for
This
varies from year to year and section to section. It is further complicated by
the fact that the number of All East choir members is not fixed, but may vary
greatly from year to year. The Executive Board looks at the full sets of
election results and uses a statistical formula called a Z-score to determine
how the different sections’ scores compare to each other. This allows the Board
to determine the cut-off scores for each section and to decide how many singers
will be assigned to each part. Once the cutoff scores are determined, the
students are randomly assigned to one of the three choirs.
If
you are described as an alternate, it means that you did not score well enough
to be eligible for a particular choir. However, you did score well enough to
become a substitute for another choir member who cannot attend All East or
No,
you still must pass the next level of the auditions, the screening audition,
before you are “in” All East for certain.
The
Accompanists
will audition on two pieces from the All East literature. The exact titles are
selected by the Executive Board and will be indicated on the ETVA website.
Students should prepare to play the accompaniment and open-score on both
pieces. If a metronome marking is not printed in the score, the exact tempo
will be indicated on the website.
This
will depend on the number of students auditioning as accompanists that day. If
time allows, you will have a short time to warm up.
There
will be two or three judges who are high school directors who will judge the
auditions. In addition, a college director may be asked to assist with the
audition.
Your
total audition will last approximately fifteen minutes.
Can I
audition as a singer also?
Accompanist
students may audition for All East as a singer. There is no additional fee to
audition as a singer and an accompanist. Your accompaniment audition will not
conflict with your singing audition and you will be scheduled so as to have a
few minutes in between singing and playing.
If
you are chosen as an accompanist and singer, and score high enough on your
vocal audition to make
You
will be asked to play through the accompaniment on each piece while following
the conductor. You will also be asked to play just the vocal parts on each
piece with the conductor. It is important that you follow the conductor’s beat
pattern at all times!
You
will be judged on your ability to:
·
Play the
accompaniment correctly with proper style and musicality.
·
Follow the
conductor.
·
Play the open
score vocal parts.
No,
the judges will fill out comments on your audition.
The
judges may select up to eight accompanists (two per All East choir including
the Freshman choir), but are not required to select
any at all. Because the accompanist is so important, a student will only
accompany a choir if he/she demonstrates exceptional ability.
You
will be assigned to prepare the music for one of the All East choirs. You
should prepare to play accompaniment and parts with a conductor. You will not
be confirmed as an accompanist until you complete the second phase of your
audition.
Students
who have been assigned to prepare the music for a particular choir will meet
with judges at the All East screening audition. You will be required to play
through all the music to demonstrate that you are prepared to be an
accompanist. At that time, the judges will decide which pieces, if any, you
will be allowed to accompany at All East.
For information on the Screening auditions, All East or