<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I'm thinking of auditioning for the Chapel Choir when I get to Pton, and I was wondering if there were some current/past members of the choir on the boards. I just wanted to know what you thought of the group, if you had fun, how competitive auditions are, etc.</p>
<p>jweed</p>
<p>I'm in Choir, and it's one of the best things I've done at Princeton! It's exactly the right balance of serious and fun for me. Some of my best friends and some of the people on campus I most admire are in Choir... it's a friendly, fun, outgoing, and active group of people.</p>
<p>What to say about the auditions process depends a little on what level of singer you are... It's relatively friendly to new singers, as long as you can match pitch, which shouldn't be too difficult. That's not to say it isn't serious singing, however. When I joined, I hadn't formally sung since middle school... but in less than a year of choir I'd learned to sight-sing and my voice was improving. If you're already an accomplished singer, on the other hand, there are solo and small-group singing opportunities from time to time. And we do have some of the best singers on campus. :-)</p>
<p>We sing for the Sunday service each week, and University functions as needed (Opening Exercises, Baccalaureate, memorial services, and other stuff). We perform a formal spring and fall concert, and sometimes we travel to join other choirs (Harvard, Yale, churches in NYC) for concerts. This past spring, we sang at Carnegie Hall, which was AMAZING, and our director is working to see if she can make this an every-four years thing. There are three rehearsals per week -- two during the week at 5pm M & Th, and one immediately preceding the Sunday service, which is non-denominational Christian. There is, however, no requirement that you be any particular religion for Choir.</p>
<p>If I haven't thoroughly convinced you yet, there are more perks... Choir is a campus job, funded through the Office of Religious Life, and you are paid for both services <em>and</em> rehearsals. Voice lessons are also subsidized through Choir, covering about half. I think I'm going to take advantage of them next year.</p>
<p>What else? The organ is absolutely amazing... The Chapel has these awesome colorful silk kites that are brought out for special occasions... The best part about the Princeton functions is that the combination of academic regalia and gothic architecture leads to a Hogwarts-Great-Hall sort of atmosphere... heh. Now I'm rambling... IM me at ampresco if you've any more questions... about choir, or anything else!</p>
<p>Ashley</p>
<p>Oh, and I forgot to mention Phantom. Just before Halloween every year, we have a showing of the silent Phantom of the Opera film in the Chapel... lots of people come, students and community members and kids and faculty and staff... the choir dresses in costumes of infinite variety and wanders about being goofy and scary for an hour beforehand and then sings a couple pieces. It's lots of fun, and we get very creative. Last year the shortest member of choir decided to be headless... this was kinda funny on its own, but even better when she joined the rear of the bass section, which was processing with hymnals doing the "Pie Jesu Domine" routine from Monty Python. Naturally, she wasn't whacking her forehead with the hymnal, but where her forehead "should" have been... it was amusing.</p>
<p>This brings up a side point I should mention -- Halloween is HUGE at Princeton, despite falling over Fall Break. We celebrate it Thursday before the break, and there's all sorts of stuff going on... Rocky Horror, res college stuff, and any number of parties. People DO dress up.</p>
<p>I figured Halloween would have to be big at Princeton. Our colors are orange and black. Yay for Halloween! Yay for Princeton!</p>
<p>Yay for my 800th post, too!</p>
<p>'bout time, ivyboy ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, I started looking into Chapel Choir too (especially since it's a campus job, and...well...I'd like to have a good, fun campus job :)). I've just started working on vocal stuff (though I've sung and had "lessons" through musical theatre at and out of my school). It seems like it'd be a really fun thing to do. All who do it seem to enjoy it, which is always a plus :cool:</p>
<p>Wow, ashley. The choir sounds absolutely amazing. I've participated in a church choir for the past four years at my (catholic) high school, and so I'm glad that an attractive option exists to continue (with pay, no less!). In any case, thanks for the info. Perhaps I'll meet you there.</p>