AUDITIONS - Volunteers

Essence of Harmony Choral Society is getting ready for our fall season. Our first in-person season will feature Händel’s Messiah in December. Rehearsals are Monday evenings from 7p-9p at Bethel AME Church in Moorestown, NJ. All voice parts are welcome, especially needed are basses.

If you’d like to sing with us, visit the website, http://www.essenceofharmonycs.org, and go to the New Member Information page. You may also come to the first rehearsal and sign up afterwards. First rehearsal is on Monday, September 13th at 7p. For questions or more information please email .

Ember to Host Auditions in NYC and New Jersey for its Critically Acclaimed Choral Ensemble

New York, NY- Ember, (Dr. Deborah Simpkin King, Founding Artistic Director) the critically acclaimed choral ensemble of Ember Choral Arts (formerly Schola Cantorum on Hudson) will hold auditions by appointment on August 31 from 7PM-9PM at Our Lady of Sorrows Church (217 Prospect St, South Orange, NJ 07079) and September 1 from 6PM-8PM at the Opera America Building (330 Seventh Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10001). To make an audition appointment, please visit www.EmberArts.org/auditions or email . For more information you may call 888.407.6002, ext. 3.

Ember’s core belief is that music has a unique power to affect the human heart and soul. Ember is committed to excellence in innovative programming and performance; leadership through promotion and performance of new choral music and vibrant, creative engagement with young artists. Ember seeks to inspire fresh thinking about topics of social significance through innovative programming. Ember boasts an internationally recognized new music advocacy initiative and an impressive history of premiere performances.

Conducted by its founder, Dr. Deborah Simpkin King, the choir performs its full concert season in both New Jersey and Manhattan with virtual performances available internationally. Its members have been drawn together by a shared love of great choral music and by dedication to the highest standard of performance. The group is admired by both its audiences and the critics. The Classical New Jersey Society Journal raved: “The most warmly rounded . . . blend I have ever heard in a live choral concert.

Ember singers include a high percentage of active professional musicians, young emerging professionals, and experienced avocational musicians. Solo technique is supported Ember’s approach to tone. Singers come from an exceptionally wide geographical radius from both sides of the Hudson River. All of our rehearsal and performance venues are highly accessible via mass transit.

What is expected in the audition?
Requisites for auditioning include previous choral experience, music-reading ability, and a clear voice with good intonation. Auditions consist of a prepared solo, sight singing, and an interview with the Artistic Director.

Is there a financial commitment?
There are no membership fees or dues. However, singers are expected to purchase their own music.

How do I audition for solo work?
All solos are assigned to ensemble members. Indicate your desire for solo work in your preliminary audition conversation. You may be asked to prepare specific music for solo auditions.

Where do I sign up for an audition?
To make an audition appointment, please visit www.EmberArts.org/auditions or email . For more information you may call 888.407.6002, ext. 3.
Ember Choral Arts (formerly Schola Cantorum on Hudson), a not-for-profit arts organization under the direction of Dr. Deborah Simpkin King (Founding Artistic Director) and Karen Gonon (Executive Director) is made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Investor’s Foundation.

ABOUT EMBER (Ember Choral Arts, formerly known as Schola Cantorum on Hudson)
Founded in 1995 as an independent 501c3, the Ember Choral Arts has grown in depth and influence. It performs (as Ember) its full season in both Manhattan and South Orange, NJ, and enjoys international recognition particularly for its work in advocacy of new choral music. The organization is home to PROJECT : ENCORE, which serves as a bridge connecting composers with conductors who seek new music of exceptional quality. Fundamental to Ember’s core values is the belief that music has a unique power to affect the human heart and soul, inviting each of us to become fully aware, mindful individuals.

It is part of Ember’s mission to extend the role of Art beyond that of its own intrinsic value, leveraging it to bring visibility and expansive thinking to issues of human significance. The areas of social significance selected for full-season thematic exploration are supported by advisory task force activity and podcast promotion. Core to the mission of Ember Choral Arts is to bring innovative programming designed to touch lives, inspire leadership through promotion of new music and enhance meaningful engagement with young singers. For more information visit www.EmberArts.org.

ABOUT DR. DEBORAH SIMPKIN KING (FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR)

Deborah Simpkin King, Ph.D., is a visionary choral conductor, new music advocate, and master teacher. She plays an active role in the vibrant Manhattan choral scene and serves the national and international music community through her guest conducting and body of published work.

Her leadership as a conductor is ongoing with not only her own choral ensemble the semi-professional Ember of Ember Choral Arts (formerly Schola Cantorum on Hudson), but also within Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and other guest conducting appearances. Her commitment to nurturing the next generation in the arts can be seen through the growth of the Ember Education, along with her long standing leadership of the NJ-ACDA High School Choral Festival.

Through PROJECT : ENCORE (which she founded), Dr. King is at the leading edge of the new music industry, working with composers in finding post-premiere performances, and performing many premieres herself.

As a monthly columnist with ACDA’s Choral Journal and host of public radio’s Sounds Choral, she serves the music community worldwide.

Supplementing her work in the not-for-profit and professional conducting arena, Dr. King frequently works as a professor and as a director of music within church programs.

Join Nashirah, the Jewish Chorale of Greater Philadelphia, for their 2021-2022 season!

Musical skills, including sight-reading ability, tonal memory, rhythmic accuracy, and vocal range will be assessed via Zoom meeting.

Nashirah rehearses at the Curtis Institute of Music; however, due to construction, this season’s rehearsal space is Presser Hall at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. Nashirah meets from 6:15 to 8:15pm on Sunday evenings, and will have performances as follows:

February 11, 2022 – ACDA East, Boston
March 6, 2022 – Collaboration with Philadelphia Voices of Pride, Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral
April 24 – Andrea Clearfield’s Salon, Center City Philadelphia
May 22 – End of Year Concert, honoring the retirement of
Cantor Eliot Vogel, Har Zion

Audition dates will be scheduled for August 25 and 29. Please contact to schedule your audition.
COVID-19 vaccination is required.

Are you in the Chicago Area/Northern Suburbs and dying to sing in a group? The CLC Singers of College of Lake County in Grayslake, IL would love to have you join us. We rehearse Tuesday afternoons from 1-3pm. We sing a wide range of choral music, both accompanied and a cappella.
To register for your choir, students must enroll into the following designations:

For transfer credit: MUS 120 – Section 001 (3507)
For personal enrichment: CMSC 2 – Section 001 (4077)

Call (847) 543-2000 to get enrolled.

2021-22 Season Auditions

San Mateo –
Audition appointments for our 58th performance season are available by request during the month of August. We invite experienced singers in all vocal ranges to audition.

Masterworks Chorale, based in San Mateo, CA, is one of the Bay Area’s finest large choral ensembles. With an emphasis on musical excellence, community outreach and singer camaraderie, Masterworks rehearses and performs works of sacred and secular choral music, with and without orchestras, in venues around the Bay Area.

Though we continue to flex our logistics and planning around the highest standards of Covid mitigation, we are planning a full season of safe rehearsing and performing.

Audition Information
Our easy-on-the-ego audition format is designed to bring out singers’ best capabilities. All auditions are conducted by our Artistic Director, Dr. Bryan Baker.

Please come prepared to sing a song or aria (any style), or your voice part’s line in a portion of a standard classical choral work. Please provide an extra copy of your music for an accompanist. You will also be asked to perform sight-singing of short musical excerpts, and to repeat back short melodies played on the piano.

To schedule an audition appointment, please fill out our Audition Request Form at www.masterworks.org/auditions.

Our singers pay membership dues, but no qualified singers are turned away due to financial constraints. Partial and full dues scholarships are available.

For more information about our organization, please visit www.masterworks.org.

Have questions? Please contact the Masterworks office by phone at (650) 918-6225 or by email at .

Auditions are open for our Holiday Prep! This prep and concert are going to be LIT!

The Grinch may have stole our holidays last year, but we will not let him get away with it this year!

In addition to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, we will be singing music from “Home Alone”, holiday favorites, and more! This concert will definitely make you feel all the good feels of the holiday season.

If you love to sing, we would love to have you audition on August 21 or 22!  

You must be fully vaccinated with one of the Covid-19 vaccinations to audition and sing!

Sign up today at www.allegrezzasingers.com/auditions