Hey y’all,
I (17M) am going to be a senior in the fall. I am a bass-baritone, looking at auditioning as a classical voice major I am considering auditioning for one of two groups in the fall: 1. A local community theatre is producing Rodger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella as their “mainstage” (adult cast) winter show. Although the cast is mostly adults, they still cast quite a few teenagers in small/ensemble roles. I have performed in Phantom of the Opera at this theatre’s teen program and have participated at a few other youth programs here. It’s moderately selective, with 80+ auditionees for a given show and only up to 30 being cast. This production performs for four weeks, with about 20 performances iirc. Phantom performed for only 3 weeks and had 9 performances spread out over the 3 weeks.
2. An adult community choir which is performing two concerts in the winter. The first is a general assortment of Christmas/Winter-y choral songs, which performs 2-3 times. The second is a sing-along performance of Handle’s Messiah. I know the choral director from doing a local choral festival with him and he is very nice. This choir has “auditions”, but seems to be no cuts. He said I could audition but I would be the youngest member in there by a decade or two.
Pros of Cinderella:
-Selective
-Intense score (learning opportunity)
-More familiar with the people involved
-People my age there
-Free
Cons of Cinderella:
-Might not make it (established theatre with very strong audition pool)
-Give me less time to prepare for college auditions
-Strenuous rehearsal schedule (3x a week, for 3-5 hours each. Common for MT in my experience).
-Many, many performances
Pros of joining the choir:
-More closely related to my intended major
-Lighter rehearsal schedule (1x a week)
-Leaves plenty of time to rehearse for college auditions
Cons of joining the choir:
-new environment
-age gap
-don’t know much about this place
-80$ membership dues
-unsure what the exact repertoire will be
Should I shoot for Cinderella or just do the choir?
If you are planning on applying to audition based programs for college/conservatory, I highly recommend you choose whatever ensemble has less time commitment. The summer before senior year and through fall semester will likely be incredibly busy as you record and submit pre screens and applications. You might also consider which ensemble/cast has enough flexibility to allow you to drop out or minimize participation if you need more time for audition prep and keeping up with your usual school coursework.
When my son was a senior at a performing arts HS, the juniors played in most of the concerts to allow the seniors enough time to focus on their audition prep in the fall and travel to live auditions in the early spring. A very hectic and exciting time!
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When would the Cinderella performances be? Would they be finished before you are likely to have scheduled auditions for college? Will you have plenty of time to do a good job on your audition materials, submit prescreens, complete applications and write essays?
The performances from Cinderella run from the last weekend of November to Dec. 17th. All weekends have a Friday 7:30 show, Saturday 4:00 & 7:30, and Sunday 3:00. I’m a bit new to this, but from my understanding this wouldn’t conflict with scheduled auditions but my time to prepare for the auditions would be greatly minimized. I think this might take a chunk of time out of prescreens though. The choir only has 4 performances, 3 of which are on the same weekend.
The choir is exponentially less of a time commitment which I could drop easier. Their policy on rehearsal conflicts is seemingly pretty lenient too. It might be a little less fun per se, but I think it would be less stressful. It’s been a while since I’ve done a show and I miss the community that comes with it, but I certainly have the spring and summer of next year, and there will most certainly be programs I can participate in at college
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Do you attend a brick & mortar school? Just curious because these sound like community opportunities. If you have some academic flexibility that can make a difference too.
Have you done highly committed productions before while keeping other balls in the air? What opportunity is more interesting to you? Do you have a voice teacher? Are you well on your way with your audition repertoire?
My kid last fall was a full time dual enrollment student, applied to colleges, recorded prescreens late after having Covid, and did a holiday show with a 6 week run, around 50 shows. And was doing another regional auditioned group. So it’s possible. But that is how she rolls. She is doing a long running summer production right now and trying to get into a fringe festival too. 
I will say she had a solid list of rep and was well into learning this time last year.
My kid often just does auditions as they roll out. Because sometimes you don’t have a full picture until you do and your don’t get everything you try for. Given what I know about theater auditions if you are a strong low range 17 year old vocalist with some stage experience, a lot of community and youth theaters here with competitive auditions would be very excited to have you. If you are a soprano teen, well, that may be a lot more competitive.
Assuming neither of these are for resume building as classical voice is all down to the audition. If you love performing on stage be sure to ask if the programs you are looking at will cast undergrads - many with graduate programs do not. Your voice type will give you plenty of opportunities. Agree with many who say make sure you are focusing your time on the audition process as it seems your goal is to pursue this career. That being said the fall time is when you have to finalize your audition videos (which can take alot of time). Full audition season will be Jan-Mar. Best of luck with whatever you choose.
One thing I was going to mention is timing can make a big difference with these opportunities. It might be helpful to lay out your timelines and see what feels more reasonable and fun for you.
My daughter scheduled to do prescreen recording mid to late October. That did get bumped a couple weeks. All prescreen required applications were in by Dec 1. Her holiday show ran just before thanksgiving through the holidays. So though she had one late app that was only taking virtual auditions and a couple scholarships apps, December into January was mostly waiting for prescreen results and scheduling travel and auditions. Which was mostly on me as a parent.
What are you doing this summer? Are you working on essays? Getting a jump on that can be really helpful. Do you have a list of schools and a safe, affordable option? Do you have a parent willing to help as a secretary? I helped maintain spreadsheets with links, deadlines.
Having stuff to enjoy and good social connections during senior year was important for both my kids to stay balanced during the process and for some students having more structure in a schedule can be a good thing. I also think auditioning and stage work made both my kids more confident on the audition circuit.
I do agree about asking directly about performance for undergrads. We have found some programs that might use UG high voices sparsely in their opera programs might be using their UG low voices much more. But my kid this year auditioned at one program that had very minimal performance opportunities for UG performance at all and that came off the list.
Is resume not important for classical at all? I’ve been working on building it for the last two years but it’s not the most distinguished so it would certainly be a huge relief to not have to worry about that
I attend a regular brick and mortar school. I’ve done strictly community programs in combination with my school’s honor choir and a few local festivals for my junior year. Cinderella is more enticing to me, but I am not sure about how apt I am to managing such a heavy time commitment on top of college applications / auditions. I’m hoping to start working on essays for the summer. I have a list of schools, but honestly, my top choice is a relatively non-selective state school that will allow me to double major. I have a really strong weighted GPA (4.56). However, I think all of the planning and stuff will come down on me. Unfortunately, I’m a little behind with audition repertoire but I am hoping to get that all learned this summer before school starts.
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resume only gets your foot in the door - especially for schools that are not stand alone conservatories. Of course you need a well rounded experience but for those schools you will need good grades too. For conservatories it is all about your audition and if they think you are open to their way of training you. My kid just graduated from a conservatory in Opera and she had zero experience in classical performance. She only performed in her school plays and choir. She got into 3 schools out of the 5 she did live auditions for. Just don’t worry about resume at this point. Once you are in no one at the college will care about your resume. I know it sounds harsh but it was the reality at my kid’s college.
You have many good comments here.
But I want to hone in on the “resume building”. Vocalists are young…especially males. Many of the male vocalists, that I knew, performed in their school shows (however it is a metro area with decent school shows). They may have done some community theater in the summer and/or honor choirs and/or church choirs/holiday specials. I’m not aware of the necessity for VP of an extensive performance resume.
For VP, the audition is KING. If you show up well-prepared with a good voice that shows potential (your current teachers will be able to help you determine that), your performance resume will matter very little imho. It is good to do some performing as “acting for singer” techniques are important. Stage presence and comfort are important as well. If they see solid to high vocal talent and a lack of acting experience and presence in the audition…that is something that can be worked on in college (as long as you are open to trying any new requests the audition panel would make). In other words, showing your vocal talent through a strong audition is more important than building a resume. They may use the resume to understand some lack in acting (or not). More experienced performers would be expected to be better at the acting portion. Less experience performers may be given some slack…if the vocal talent is there. The resume doesn’t need to be the BEST simply a background snapshot that helps explain your current situation.
I would be careful to take on anything with a large time commitment in the fall. I would use that time to invest into your pre-screens. If your school does a show, that may help you stay involved in performance (as I know my D refused to miss the big fall musical the year that she auditioned…and it was very stressful).
Do you have a voice teacher that could assist you with these decisions? My D did work with an acting coach (as she did MT auditions too) during the summer. She found that useful. She listed it on her music resume as well to show her serious “intentions”.
I vote for a lighter schedule. I think that it will allow you the time to do great prescreen and auditions and to enjoy the process more and be less stressed.
Good luck…with whatever your choice is.
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My son who just graduated hs 2023 applied vocal performance as a bass. In fall, he played varsity football at a high level (took band and choir in school), was in an acapella group, and took once a week voice lessons. In winter he swaps football and does the high school musical. He was fortunate to be able to do most of his auditions by submitting a video upload which his voice teacher helped him prepare.
My son was accepted to Jacobs (Indiana U), Baldwin Wallace, Syracuse, and a dozen others. He did not want a hard core conservatory only experience. He had 100% acceptance rate.
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I agree with those who emphasize preparing your prescreens and audition material. Those prescreens are the schools’ first glimpse at you as a performer and are the primary deciding factor for live (or live virtual, or virtual) auditions. Spend time learning age and voice-appropriate repertoire in the summer and early fall and get those pieces in great shape. Hopefully you have a private voice teacher who can help you choose what to prepare.
Best of luck!
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Hey sorry for the late response,
My school show has a really long rehearsal schedule (MWTh 4-8) along with some weekend rehearsals which would make it unfeasible. It’s production week is also way longer, although it only has one weekend of performances, and unfortunately, it’s not the best environment and is producing a show which I wouldn’t be interested in at all. I’m leaning towards the choir bc it’s way lighter. I do have a private teacher however and will certainly talk with them about this
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That sounds like a good call. If you are in full time school and doing your regular school related stuff this isn’t the best season to try ADDING new stuff you haven’t had on your plate before. If you had done all this for a year or two in your regular schedule and were used to that balance, it may be worth continuing.
For the choir, you can also just keep your options open through auditions. My kid has had to turn down things after an auduition because of schedule changes, etc. I don’t think that it is unusual for volunteer based opportunities.
The biggest thing is to just have NOTHING on your plate mid January through Late Feb/early March depending on how much auditioning you are hoping to do. If you wanted to try something new with higher obligations in the spring or next summer, that might be good timing before you head off!
I’m glad you have a teacher you are working worth. That will be helpful and they are sure to give you good advice! Good luck! 