Auditions for the 2025/26 Season will be in January 2025 and the application will be live soon.
If you would like to be notified when auditions open, please contact us.
Thank you for your interest in the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Preliminary Auditions for the 2024-2025 season will be held January 8 – January 16, 2024. Applications will be accepted through 5:00pm on January 3, 2024.
Callback Auditions will be held January 23 – February 18, 2024.
All auditions will be held at Symphony Center, located at 220 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60604.
Audition candidates are asked to exhibit their range and flexibility by singing two selections of contrasting style and tempo. Selections may be either art songs or arias and should demonstrate the expressive range and flexibility of the voice, especially with regard to dynamics and vibrato. When offering opera arias, singers are strongly encouraged (but not required) to sing from memory, demonstrating an understanding of the text and a clear projection of the character. One piece must be sung in English and the other in a foreign language. Each piece should be a maximum of 3 (three) minutes in duration. If your piece is longer than 3 (three) minutes, you must make appropriate cuts.
In addition to your selections, you will also be asked to sing:
- An excerpt from standard choral repertoire, which will be made available upon completion of this application.
- A sight-reading exercise.
- A chromatic scale, ascending from Do to Sol, then descending from Sol to Do. You may sing this on any syllable(s) you choose, though we ask that each syllable begin with a consonant, for example: doh-dah-doh-dah, or tee-tah-tee-tah, or solfege syllables. This gives each pitch a clear beginning to help you achieve good intonation.
All auditions will be accompanied by a Chicago Symphony Chorus staff pianist. Please remember to bring copies of both of your pieces for the accompanist. The accompanist’s copy must be in the key in which the piece will be performed. Please be sure that photocopies are clear, cuts are clearly marked, and that the music is placed in a three-ring binder. No loose pages, please.
Please contact us with any questions you may have.
Please note that it is policy of the Chicago Symphony Chorus that an applicant who has auditioned three or more times in the past seven years and has not been offered a position must wait three years since the date of his/her most recent audition before being granted another audition.
