<p>Hi all! My name is Emily and I am going to be a junior in high school next year. </p>
<p>What I am wondering, is how important is a concert choir? This year in addition to doing plays I was in my school's show choir, but it was very rigorous and did not allow me to fully immerse myself in the plays at my school (i would not get into some of them based on time conflicts). I have decided to opt out of show choir next year in order to pursue drama more fully, but I am left wondering if i should take concert choir. The music is classical, they perform several times a year (this year, they performed at the Kennedy Center and are set to perform in Hawaii this December) with very little after school commitment (so i could still do plays) but I am just wondering how important is it, really? I take voice lessons once a week. And I think i'm going to take the choir because i love singing, i just wonder how beneficial it really is. </p>
<p>You should do what is best for you! An MT college is not going to reject you because you weren’t in choir, but you took drama instead. They see you audition. You should probably try to work on what you feel will help you improve the most. If singing harmonies in an ensemble is a weak point for you, and you are a decent actor, then I would say take choir instead. But, if you are a fine singer and you need to work on your acting, then by all means take drama. It will be as beneficial as you make it! I say that you should do as much as you can. Take show choir, concert choir, drama, and be in the “plays at your school.” I am sure you already have, but if you haven’t, you should speak with your director and ask about being in choir and the plays. You never know, there may be a way to work it all out!</p>
<p>But in the end, you should do what YOU WANT TO DO! Not what is just best for college, but what is best for YOU! You take as many classes as you can in order to learn the most you can!</p>
<p>Hope that helps somewhat,
EJ</p>
<p>P.S. I had the same exact problem when I went into high school, but I sat down and talked to both the choir director and the director of plays and musicals. I worked out an arrangement so that became possible for me to actually do both. Good luck!</p>
<p>Are you interested in attending your state university? Often hs choir teachers have great connections and pull for their favorites. Perhaps you will have all your prereqs out out of the way by your senior year and can do both. Your junior year is not usually a good year to discontinue working closely with a teacher that knows your talents. I would talk to the choir teacher to see how she reacts. Are you in All State? My d chose drama her junior year and the choir teacher was borderline rude for a year afterward.</p>
<p>Choir exposes you to a broad range of music, the elements of which are interwoven into musicals. “Classical” music is a part of almost every musical in some form, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. Having a firm background in choral music will aid you in many ways in MT. Top MT colleges usually emphasize to HS kids that training is extremely important and should be considered on balance (if not ahead) of “being in shows.” The tons of singing that you will do in choir is superb training.</p>
<p>My D received only choral training prior to auditioning for her performing arts high school and was able to get in ahead of many, many kids with tons of private voice training and MT shows. I know of kids from her HS that were in voice (choir) and not MT that gained entrance to top conservatory MT programs.</p>
<p>If you can make it work, choir is well worth the effort.</p>
<p>My daughter opted out of concert choir her senior year. She was doing a lot of regional theater, and concert choir was at 7 AM- it was hard to rehearse until midnight and then make it to choir by 7 and she was afraid her grades would drop. Dropping it did not affect her admission to MT programs as she was accepted to most of the programs to which she applied. However, I will say that her 3 years in concert choir did give her a distinct advantage in all of the areas that EmsDad^^^^listed!!! My D had extensive piano training so was already a great sight reader, but learning to apply it in a choral situation helped. She is now an excellent sight reader and it will help her in the long run. At least twice that I can think of, she has been called in as a pit singer in our regional theater without even auditioning, as they know she can do it without much rehearsal. I think that kids who have participated in a choir take away some great skills that can really come in handy in the MT world.</p>
<p>Well I now realize how lucky my D was to take Chorale (aud only) as an elective during school. That way it didn’t interfere with after school extras. She also was able to participate in her Jazz Chorale which met twice a week unless they were in the midst of rehearsals for their musical. Our musical dr was very flexible in making sure his students could do both. My D was able to participate in All State which I think is a wonderful experience. I feel the classical training she has received was very important in her getting accepted into a few college programs.</p>
<p>What’s important is what you need and how you will benefit by participating. If you are already doing private voice lessons weekly then I would assume pitch, tone, dynamics. breath support, and other technical issues are being addressed. My daughter did one year of chamber choir and did not find it to be beneficial and dropped to focus on community theater and school drama productions. Although not all choir programs are created equal, in our case, there was not a whole lot of learning going on. It quickly became a waste of time and the singing style, breathy chorale stuff, was actually doing her much more harm than good. As far as colleges go, I do not believe they will care one wit whether you did or did not do this or that. The audition is what’s important. But you should seek out opportunities to sing somewhere.</p>
<p>Some colleges look upon advanced choral experience very highly, especially church affiliated schools. They often have scholarships for those willing to sing in their chapels.
Some students make extra money at my d’s school singing in area churches. Our nationally renowned state flagship university looks very highly on All State choral performers because it allows kids who couldn’t afford pv training to excell at singing so it sort of levels the application field somewhat.</p>
<p>Flossy makes a good point - not all chorales are created equal.</p>
<p>Clearly there are some out there which have been hugely advantageous for MT hopefuls to be in - but I’ve seen some that I can’t imagine were of much help because the kids weren’t really learning all those great things listed in above posts.</p>
<p>I wish my D could have been in it but her drama teacher, as I have noted, would NEVER have stood for the schedule conflict. Alas.</p>
<p>As this issue is being explored, bear in mind that at most auditions for MT programs, the ability to act the song is a critical aspect of the vocal portion of the audition, not simply the ability to sing. Ensemble based choirs do not provide this experience. There is also, of course, the monolog portion of the audition which is entirely acting based. Participation in school and community theatre provides experience and direction in both acting songs and straight drama. The training that a student may get in music theory and vocal technique in a choir is readily available through other means, particularly individual voice lessons. Also bear in mind that MT programs offered through the schools of theatre/theatre departments at colleges and universities are going to have a focus and priority in the audition process that is different from programs through schools of music/music departments.</p>
<p>When my daughter was in high school, she regularly participated in school and community theatre. She also took private voice lessons and vocal coaching and attended 2 summer MT programs for high school students. At the same time, she participated for 3 years in her high school’s audition based choir that did outside performances and competitions. The choir was structured as an audition based music elective through her high school’s music department and was scheduled for an hour each day with a structured curriculum in addition to the performance aspects. As a result, it was infrequent that the choir’s performances and competitions conflicted with my daughter’s other theatre/vocal activities. If she had been forced to choose, however, between her other activities and choir, she would have chosen the former as more directly relevant to the training and experience she needed for BFA auditions and which she wanted as an aspiring stage performer.</p>
<p>In addition, MT programs, even those through schools of theatre/theatre departments, provide classes in music theory and music skills as part of the structured curriculum. Students come in with varying degrees of training and skills in these areas but the courses assure that upon completion of the program, students have the necessary competencies in these areas. Participation in h.s. choirs, while beneficial, is not critical to this.</p>
<p>So in a nutshell, if time permits, do both. If not, I would not recommend sacrificing theatrical training and experience in favor of high school choir if your intent is to pursue a theatre based MT program.</p>
<p>It might be helpful to know if you are going to be pursuing a theatre-based MT degree (BFA or BA) or a music-based one (BM). I have a D in a BA MT and a S who is considering a BM in MT (or VP). He is concentrating more on music electives in HS - acapella choir, varsity choir, AP music theory, private voice, etc. Fortunately, he is in a performing arts HS so he can also fit theatre classes in - but if he had to pick, he would pick choir and just do community theatre on the side.</p>
<p>Thanks so much everyone! I guess I did underestimate how useful choir will be. I have decided to drop show choir because the time commitment means that I cannot participate in shows (my choral director is VERY un-flexible when it comes to time commitments. there’s a bit of a choir-drama feud at my school which is really a shame.) However, I will instead take up concert choir, take music theory, continue into my 4th year of private voice training, and possibly take up piano if time permits.</p>
<p>Something else to consider - a good choir gives you yet another opportunity to be part of some special performance experiences. From personal experience, I can say that singing Brahms “Requiem” in a large choir with a major symphony orchestra was an unforgettable event (and in my years of choral singing there have been many, many more). Sometimes its easy to get caught up in “laser focus” when striving for some specific goal and miss out on some of the fun that got you interested in the art form in the beginning. To me, if you love MT, then you probably really love making almost any kind of music. If you have the time, you may find that you will have some unforgettable experiences in the wonderful complexity and challenges of performing choral music. And if you have a good voice, its something that you can do throughout your life at a high artistic level.</p>
<p>Amen, EmsDad! My D’s choir just had their end of the year concert last weekend and there is something to be said about being part of a group that makes music so beautiful it makes the audience cry!</p>
<p>This weekend they are in WV at a music festival learning all about Appalachian music and culture. Two years ago they went to Hawaii for 2 weeks to learn about the music, rhythms and culture of the Pacific rim countries. These are all fabulous experiences that she wouldn’t have missed for the world, even though she KNOWS that she will be studying MT in college.</p>
<p>As others have said, though, all choirs are not created equal. Her choir director is committed to providing a spectacular music education first and foremost. Some other choirs may not have the same mission.</p>