Thank you for your interest in auditioning for The Village Carolers. Please send your materials to auditions@thevillagecarolers.com if you are interested in caroling with us.
Auditions for the 2024 holiday season roster are now under way. To be considered for a position this year, please send a link to a video of you performing alone or with a quartet, along with your resume, to auditions@thevillagecarolers.com. There is no fee to submit your materials.
Phase One: If invited to audition, you will be sent four songs from our repertoire to learn and present three (your option which one to omit) at performance level. Your audition will be to perform those three songs at performance level in a quartet with experienced roster singers on the other parts. This portion of the audition process will take place in June.
Phase Two: Following the Phase One auditions, selected singers will be granted provisional status in the group. They will be given the entire folder of music to learn on their own, with access to performance video tracks. This is currently a little more than 70 pieces of music. In September, a required group read-through rehearsal will take place for all new singers (joined by a few veterans). Near the end of October or early in November, provisional carolers will attend a final testing where they will sing in quartets at performance level. Singers who show they are ready for performance will be upgraded from provisional status to the full TVC roster.
You must read this information before sending your materials!
When you sing with The Village Carolers, you perform. You engage with the audience. Your eyes are not locked down in your music. Reference to additional verse text is made as needed during performance, but this does not mean your head is down and buried in your folder the whole time. You might be an excellent sight-reader. That’s sincerely wonderful, but that is completely irrelevant for this purpose.
This is a theatrical presentation, not a church job.
Mezzos – please note that a few of our arrangements tend toward the low side. If you’re not solid on a low A when you’re tired, we suggest you audition as a Soprano rather than as an Alto. A few of our singers are “trans-sectionals” and learn both Soprano and Alto parts. This provides more opportunities for gigs!
Many of our selected pieces contain foreign languages, so you must be comfortable singing in languages other than English. At the present time this includes Latin, German, French, and even one in Wyandot (transliterated, of course).
The majority of our performances take place on weekends. If you have other jobs that take away two out of three Saturdays in December, please don’t waste your time auditioning and learning all of this music, because you’ll just be disappointed in the lack of work we are able to assign you.
We are solidly booked during weekends from Thanksgiving up to Christmas Eve, and have dozens of performances each year. Singers who make themselves available can usually count on at least six or more performances per year, and that number has been steadily growing. In 2019, one singer did 25 performances and made a couple thousand dollars. It is not unusual to have multiple performances in a single day during December weekends. If you make yourself available, you’ll get work. If you don’t make yourself available, you won’t get work. It’s that simple.
If you are interested in auditioning, please send an email to auditions@thevillagecarolers.com with your resume and a link to audio/video of your performance either as a soloist or as a member of a quartet.
The Village Carolers™ does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, creed, gender expression, ancestry, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status in any of its activities or operations. We are committed to providing an inclusive, respectful environment and equal opportunity to all who wish to participate in performing with us or working with us in any way.