During your audition you will be recorded and asked to perform (in the following order):

 

a) A range test: One scale sung forte a cappella on an open vowel presenting the entire voice-range, not exceeding 1 '20'' in total. It can be a simple scale movement, starting from the middle of the register, moving down to the lowest note and then returning and continuing up to the highest note after which they return again to the first note that they started with.

 

b) Sight-reading: Applicants should record a melody as a piece of sight reading. Use up to 10 minutes to look the exercise through (not using a piano, except for the introduction pitch/cadenza) and analyse all tonal and theory components. Then record at first attempt in front of the jury or a supervisor.

The exercise must be sung a cappella, in the marked tempo and with marked articulation. Sight reading is provided to the candidate by a national recruiter/supervisor on the day of the audition and it should not be prepared in advance! Prepared sight reading can be heard on the recording. If this is the case, such application will be disqualified. Sight reading exercise is not a crucial/final decision point of the candidate's audition.

 

c) Prepared score: Each year a different piece is selected and is sent to national recruiters. For the 2024 World Youth Choir auditions the prepared score is a passage of “Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Mühseligen?” by Johannes Brahms, Op. 74. From the beginning until letter A. Click here to download the audition score.

National recruiters should provide the obligatory choral excerpt in advance to all candidates and let them demonstrate their best ability in preparing at home.

The candidate should prepare at home and record at the audition his/her part with all dynamics and articulation, tonal, melodic and harmony phrasing. ​

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d) Aria or Lied of choice: Singers must prepare and sing an aria or lied of their choice, to be performed at their audition and submitted with their application. Singers should choose a piece showing their full voice/range, no recitative, max 2 minutes..

 

 

Which documents and information do you need to provide for a complete application?

Singers selected at the national audition are qualified for the final international selection done by the World Youth Choir international jury and at the beginning of the year in which the event is taking place. The audition material of those selected will be digitally submitted by the national recruiters to the World Youth Choir management through an online application form providing all information requested. The application information to be submitted for each candidate is:

 

a) The online application form filled in by the national recruiter.

The candidates should provide the information required to fill out the online form to their national recruiters. You can find a document containing a summary of the personal information required from each candidate here.

 

b) 4 mp3 audition files, corresponding to the 4 audition parts mentioned above (as an attachment to the form)

Make sure the quality of the recording is checked before submitting. Do not record with ambient noise in the background, such as room noises, TV, etc.

Digital files should be used (preferably mp3), recorded with the best equipment available. The use of Dolby noise reduction is highly recommended.

Audio enhanced (sound-manipulated) recording will be disqualified.

Video files are not accepted.

 

c) One photo of the singer where the singer’s face should be clearly visible (as an attachment to the form)

 

d) A colour scan of your passport, preferably as JPEG file (as an attachment to the form)

 

 

In special cases, a national recruiter may ask a selected candidate to submit his own application to the World Youth Choir management. If so, a candidate should follow the aforementioned instructions and a national recruiter should, in advance, inform the World Youth Choir management about this possibility.

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In the case of a direct application, the audition process and documents required is identical. In this case, the supervisor should act in the same way as indicated above for the national recruiters and submit the application through the online form.

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