Cambrdige Choirs

Umm, sorry to butt in, but you have to be awarded a place before they will audition you, so it makes no difference whatsoever.

Nah, they audition you a couple of days before the start of term. It's the same with Instrumental Awards...I had a vague thought of applying for one if they auditioned me at interview, but then they said it would be in late September, and I knew I wouldn't do much practice over the summer, so I forgot about it.

dont they audition them when they interview?

Nah, they audition you a couple of days before the start of term. It's the same with Instrumental Awards...I had a vague thought of applying for one if they auditioned me at interview, but then they said it would be in late September, and I knew I wouldn't do much practice over the summer, so I forgot about it.

Oh i see.....so if you college takes part in the choral competition in september, you will have the academic interviews early in september, hopefully be awarded a place, and then have the auditions for the choir.

I think the choral scholarship auditions are actually in September, before the academic interviews. Don't hold me to that though. And no, not getting a choral scholarship does not affect your chances of academic entry; they are judged separately. You can also be in a college choir that is not your own - in Freshers' week there were a few posters around advertising auditions for various choirs (usually not the big ones though).

For the record, King's, St. John's and Jesus are the only colleges with all-male choirs still, and King's and John's are the best of those two. Of the mixed choirs, Clare and Trinity are reputed to be the best and Caius are also supposed to be good. Clare are scarily good - I spent 6 years in my school chapel choir, and really wanted to join Clare choir when I arrived, but it was all full of scholars (no spaces for volunteers) and they are waaaaaay better than I could ever be

Nope, LOL, sorry maybe I wasn't clear. Say you want to enter in October 2005. Your interview will be in November or December 2004, and you will get your acceptance/rejection in January 2005, or possibly very late December 2004. Then you audition for a choral/instrumental award in September 2005, soon before the start of term. It's basically to check that you're still in working order before term starts, when they need you.

I had no idea you were allowed 10 colleges. I mean, I thought maybe you'd have slightly more choice than the rest of us (I could only name one college), but 10 sounds extreme.

sorry to keep buggin you all with questions, but on the choral application form it states you must chose your top 10 colleges, in order of preference, so does this outrule the CAF where you state your preferred college e.g. Trinity. Why do they ask for ten college choices?

Nah, they audition you a couple of days before the start of term. It's the same with Instrumental Awards...I had a vague thought of applying for one if they auditioned me at interview, but then they said it would be in late September, and I knew I wouldn't do much practice over the summer, so I forgot about it.

Yeah but with gr8 piano you're not going to get that much worse with a few months of no practise are you? That said, I practised my singing for the first time in about 5 weeks yesterday and I sounded like a donkey giving birth...

I auditioned earlier this year and was awarded a choral scholarship from Girton. The award was conditional on my achieving my offer though. So I don’t think it makes any difference to whether you get in or not.

P-L

LOL, after a few months of neglect, doing anything feels a bit awkward...It's still possible to pull off a good performance, but it wouldn't seem right.

By the way, do you ever record your singing and play it back while you're learning?

SO QUEENS' is not a GOOD college for choir??? I've applied a few days ago to be the organist of queens' as my first choice. I have to say that.. the organ auditions are 22-25 of September 2004 to go into 2005 course! and you get the academic interview at that time. There's so little time to prepare the compulsory piece JUST A MONTH!!! and at the boarding school I just have a piano :'( not an organ!!! I won't pass it but I have to try

Good luck mate!! Organ - playing it with your hands and your feet - that is talented.

I did once, but because my singing teacher was inept and couldn't play the piano, I was learning and practising with tinny recorded piano. This meant that when I was recorded and played back it sounded so bad it made me cry. See, making a very nervous singer do this 3 weeks before her gr8 is not such a good idea methinks.
However I played it to a few trusted mates and they said "is that you mate?" being the lovely lads that they are...

lol I play it since i was 4. The problem is that i'm not able to play a lot of pedal at my house's organ coz they are too high and in the boarding school i wont be able to play ANY pedal coz i'd play in the piano... so... it's going to be a complete mess (and i just have learned 1/5 pages of the song LOL!)