High School Choir
Policies and Procedures
UPDATED PROCEDURES FOR the 2020-2021 school year
- The audition cuts will be released on Wednesday, October 28, 2020.
- Students will need to make a video recording of themselves singing the audition music.
- Students will need to upload this video to YouTube - select "unlisted" when uploading.
- After uploading the video, students should share the YouTube link with their teachers, who will add the link to their audition entry.
- Student video submissions are due on Wednesday, November 4, by 11:59:59 PM. NO LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
- Teachers will meet in person at Gardner-Edgerton High School on Saturday, November 7, to live judge the auditions.
Only the room monitor, and not the judges, will see student name/school/info. This will still be a "blind" audition.
- There will NOT be a sight-singing component of the audition for the 2020-2021 school year.
VIDEO REQUIREMENTS
- Video submission should only include the student's singing voice, not the accompaniment track.
- It is strongly suggested that students use headphones to hear the accompaniment track, but the accompaniment track should not be audible on the video.
- This is to eliminate any sound phasing issues to and the possibility of students not having enough proper devices to record and play sound
- Student's head and shoulders must be visible in the video
- Only 1 unedited submission video may be uploaded per singer. Students should use the pre-recorded accompaniment track provided by ECKMEA for the audition.
- Sound editing is also not allowed
- Students may not talk during their audition video. The presence of any talking on the recording will result in disqualification of the audition.
- Teachers can help students create videos but are not required to. Teachers, however, must be the one to upload the audition link.
- Personal or school owned devices may be used for creating videos
- Music does not need to be memorized.
- Videos can be recorded directly into YouTube, or recorded separately then uploaded to YouTube. Make sure the video gets set to UNLISTED.
- Students send the link to their unlisted video to their teacher, teacher adds link to audition record.
Auditions are open to students in grades 9-12.
Eligibility
Since the ECKMEA High School Choir, State HS Choirs, and ECKMEA Middle Level Choirs
include 9th graders, it is up to the director's professional discretion to
decide which of these opportunities is best for his/her 9th graders as individuals. If a 9th grade
student is registered to audition for the ECKMEA High School Choir, that student is NOT
eligible to be submitted for the ECKMEA Middle Level Choir. See Middle Level Choir Policies for
more information on Middle Level policies and procedures. Any student auditioning or submitted
for more than one group will be disqualified from participation at the district level.
Registration
Each school is allowed to register a maximum of 40 singers, including no more
than 12 singers per voice part (twelve sopranos, twelve altos, twelve tenors, twelve basses). If a
school does not enter the maximum twelve singers on any part, additional singers cannot be
added to other voice parts. No substitutions will be allowed on audition day. Only students
registered by the deadline will be eligible for the KMEA All-State Choirs. Students entered as
late auditions are only eligible for the ECKMEA District Choirs.
9th graders are eligible for either a middle level OR high school level track. 9th grade students
registered for ECKMEA Middle Level Choir may NOT audition for the ECKMEA High School
Choir.
Ensembles and Voicing
ECKMEA will have an SATB choir and an SSAA choir. Audition
scores will be used to populate these choirs on an alternating and rotating system. For
example, the top soprano 1 score is placed in the SATB choir, the next score placed in the
SSAA, and so on. The following year, the top score goes to the SSAA choir. ECKMEA may
require students to learn a part different than their specific audition part in order to ensure
balanced voicing in the honor choirs. Sopranos and Altos earning membership to state choir
may or may not be placed in the similarly voiced choir for state. Audition Repertoire: The
audition pieces and information concerning the mp3 practice files may be found by visiting
ksmea.org/hschoir. Students will sing a portion of each selection for the audition. Audition cuts
will be posted on the ECKMEA website, http://eckmea.org, by 8 am on the Friday morning
before auditions. Directors should share these audition cuts with their students so that the cuts
are marked in music prior to audition day. After the repertoire portion is complete, students will
remain in the room to perform the sight-reading portion of the audition. (See Sight Reading
Procedures) Audition Times and Blocks: Participating schools will be assigned times in either
the morning or afternoon session, all students form each school auditioning during the same
session. AM/PM session lists will be published on the ECKMEA website, http://eckmea.org,
after the registration deadline so the number of auditions within the blocks can be balanced.
Audition Check-In Procedures
All students auditioning in the morning must report to the check
in table by 7:30 AM or they will not be permitted to audition. Students auditioning in the
afternoon must report to the check in table by 12:30 PM or they will not be permitted to
audition. Special scheduling requests must be made by the director through the audition chair.
Students should bring audition music and a pencil. Dress is casual. Upon check in, students
will receive a nametag with audition number, place the name tag in an easily visible place on
their clothing, then move into the auditorium to receive instructions and to hear a recording of all
audition passages as well as sight-singing instructions. Students should have cuts marked in
both excerpts prior to arrival. Audition excerpts will be played every 30 minutes. Audition
numbers will be called in order to move from the auditorium to the audition rooms.
Audition Process
Auditions are blind: students will not see judges, and judges will not see
students. No student should speak or move into the view of judges while in the audition room.
The door monitor will announce the student's audition number.
After the audition selections are complete, a recording
will begin to initiate the sight-singing process. (See Sight-Singing Procedures). Three judges will
individually score the student's performance. If you have a student who is visually impaired,
please contact the high school choir chair prior to the audition so that the necessary
accommodations can be made.