Auditioning for A capella
As spring is just around the corner, auditions for the ACHS choir program have begun. Students who are interested in fine arts now have the opportunity to get involved.
More stories from Avery Krizanovic
Festive decorations are put up on the choir room doors to happily welcome students in.
A capella choir is the top choir at Antioch Community High School. The audition process for this choir involves two parts; first, students will have a total of 3 minutes to sight read their music then perform for their choir director. The second part involves singing in front of their director as he evaluates their tone accuracy, diction and musicianship.
“The hardest part of auditioning students is knowing that I’m not just responsible for their placement, but for their happiness, too,” Daniel Ermel, choir director at ACHS said. “While the integrity of the program will always outweigh the emotions of a single student, it doesn’t make the heartbreaks any easier to live with.”
Before students’ go into their audition, there is a lot of preparation. For a capella, students need to know how to read sheet music. This involves learning rhythm, notes and solfege. In order to feel somewhat prepared, choir classes would repeatedly get new sheets of music to sight read and practice on.
“When going into an audition, don’t have the result in mind,” Ermel said. “If you are thinking about ‘Oh, I want to get into a cappella,’ or ‘I really hope I get this part in the musical,’ you are putting more stress on yourself than you need. Instead, focus on how to make the audition itself go the best it can. When I was an actor before a teacher, I would tell people that I was a professional auditioner. This is because your job is to audition, and every now and then you get cast. If the focus is on the process, you have higher success.”
Underclassmen usually have a harder time with the auditioning process than upperclassmen. Once a student has auditioned enough, it gets easier.
“Honestly I just don’t even get nervous anymore,” junior Maxwell Ness said. “I’ve taught myself to chill out because worrying isn’t going to make me do any better. You just do your best and the results will fall into place.”
With not many people leaving a cappella choir next year, there are very few openings. However, next year a very large number of students in that choir will be graduating, opening up more spots for 2022.