Hello all,

I was just wondering if there is anyone here with any experience of cathedral choir auditions? I have an audition this weekend for a lay vicar position, which includes some aural tests. I was just wondering, what do these tests typically consist of/ what types of things are they apt to ask me to do? A bit scared of this big unknown

Thanks in advance!

L

I suspect it will depend to some extent on the workload. When I auditioned (unsuccessfully) for Durham for the one place available the men in the choir were singing eight services a week, so sight reading was fairly essential. For that audition I had to sing an own choice piece, beyond that I was asked to sing some scales, and then there were three bits of sight reading: half a dozen verses of a psalm, something polyphonic and some more modern thing - certainly, at the time I struggled with the harmonies in the latter. As well as that there was a bit of chat about musical and church experience. I think it was probably about half an hour altogether.

I assume they aren't asking you to bring some prepared piece with you, so I would expect a concentration on checking that you're quick on the uptake in getting your part up to scratch. After all, in that sort of situation you often don't have time for much more than a run through before an actual service.

That sounds fairly similar to the audition that I had for an Oxford choral scholarship (admittedly not a cathedral choir audition, but I'm an ex-cathedral chorister too) - scales/vocal exercises to check your range, then sight-reading. Most cathedral choirs have far less rehearsal time than there is music in the service so that tends to be their first priority; the definition of a good chapel choir director is "someone who knows what it's safe to leave your singers to sight-read in the service" (There was one rather memorable service where "oh, this piece of Villette looks fine on page 1" descended into random-interval nightmares on page 4... )