Auditions

image: Byrd on display at Folger Shakespeare Library

What to expect

• Auditions are 7.5 minutes long.  There are eight slots available each hour, with sign ups for each 15 minute slot―but auditions are held one on one. 

• Please arrive around 10 minutes before your time slot and no more than 15 minutes early. 

• You will have more time to work on the sight-singing extract if you complete your singer on-boarding form in advance (see button, below).
  
  

On arrival at the main wooden and glass doors at St. Paul's K Street [2430 K St NW, Washington, DC 20037]

• you will be asked to sign in and confirm that you have completed the online singer form

• you will be handed a sight-singing extract to prepare, and shown to a room where you can have a few minutes to prepare it (please download a piano app in advance)

• after a few minutes you will be invited to come to the choir room where our Artistic Director will be sitting at the piano
  
  

During your audition 

• you will be asked a few questions about things that you wrote about on your singer intake form 

• you will then be asked to sing:

  • comfortably in the middle of your range, vocalizing on scales or arpeggios, and on long notes on different vowels

  • some basic ear tests (e.g. clapping or singing back a rhythm or melody heard twice, picking out notes in a three or four note chord, turning an open fifth into a major or minor chord as directed by humming the missing middle note, singing a well-known melody in different modes or rhythms)

  • one of your prepared pieces from the list (either the Kyrie, or the Benedictus―see button, below).

  • your prepared sight-reading extract

• you will be assessed on your musical abilities, vocal quality, ability to self-correct and respond to direction, more so than your ability to provide a perfect performance or finished sight-reading product

Everyone hates auditions. Know that the person leading your audition is seeking to encourage and not to catch out, and has also not enjoyed auditioning.
Please let us know if there is anything you need in order to have the most comfortable experience.

DCI plans to record auditions to help assess potential singers’ qualifications and may retain applicants’ contact information for administrative purposes. DCI will not sell or transfer this information. By auditioning, applicants consent to this data policy and to the finality of DCI’s Artistic Director’s decisions about audition results. DCI singers allow DCI to use photos, video and sound recordings of them taken at DCI concerts and other events.

We are grateful to the Rector and Wardens of the Parish of St. Paul's K Street for their hospitality.

What to do now:

1. Download the prepared pieces

2. Sign-up for a time

3. Complete your singer form

Life happens.  If you need to reschedule, please try and let us know 24 hours in advance.