II. Selection of Students
A. There will be two All-East Middle Honor Choirs: Mixed Choir with approximately 120 members and Treble Choir with approximately 99 members.
B. Each participating school will be permitted to register up to 16 students within the guidelines below. Each school is guaranteed 6 students. These 6 registrants will be placed in either the Treble or Mixed choir based on balance from their audition score. If needed, the remaining 10 students will be placed in choirs based on their audition score.
Selection Guidelines
1. 2 sopranos, with 1 designated as member of the Treble Choir and 1 designated as a member of the Mixed Choir. (Cambiata sopranos will be placed in either choir)
2. 2 altos, with 1 designated as member of the Treble Choir and 1 designated as a member of the Mixed Choir. (Cambiata altos will be placed in either choir)
3. 1 tenor designated as a member of the Mixed Choir.
4. 1 baritone designated as a member of the Mixed Choir
C. Treble Choir participants will be registered as either soprano or alto. The Executive Secretary and the Webmaster will designate an equal number from each voice part in the Treble Choir as Soprano 2 for any SSA pieces included in the group’s repertoire.
D. If a school registers 3 or less students, they will be placed in the same choir.
E. If, after registration closes, a student is unable to participate, the director of that school may substitute another student from their school who sings the same voice part before the substitution deadline posted on the ETVA calendar. The Executive Secretary must be notified of any substitutions immediately. Student substitutions may not be reflected in the concert program or on event shirts.
F. Middle Schools without choral programs may be eligible to have students from that school participate in the All-East Middle School Honor Choir provided they meet these criteria:
1. That school’s institutional activity fee and student’s fees must be paid.
2. The student must be sponsored by a teacher who is a member of NAFME, TMEA, and ETVA.
a. The sponsor may be a teacher at another school.
3. The student is responsible for securing and preparing the Honor Choir repertoire
4. The sponsor will be responsible for the student’s registration and All-East transportation/housing.
a. If a student is sponsored by a middle school teacher at an All-East
Honor Choir participating school, the sponsored student will not count against the participating school’s guaranteed allotment of six students.
G. Home-schooled students may be eligible for auditions provided they meet these criteria:
1. The student must be a member of a performing choral ensemble with regularly scheduled rehearsals.
2. The director of the ensemble must be a member in good standing of ETVA.
3. All fees must be paid including the institutional activity, director, and registration fees.
III. Registration Procedures
A. Directors will register their students using an online ETVA web form. (See ETVA calendar for the current year’s registration period.)
B. An audition fee and MP3 file fee will be charged for each registered student. These fees will not be refunded if a student does not pass the audition process.
IV. Audition Procedure
A. Directors will record each student’s audition and submit it during the open window with Submittable.
- Recordings should be made in a quiet space without background noise.
- Auditioning student’s voice should be heard clearly.
- No identifying information should be included in the recording.
B. The audition must consist of 2 parts and be recorded as two separate files::
- Sing “America” accompanied by tracks provided by ETVA in the key of F or Ab.
- Singing a scale with solfege, numbers, or neutral syllable WITHOUT accompaniment in any key. Director may give the starting pitch but cannot sing or play along. Submissions should NOT include a metronome.
C. If a submitted audition clearly has assistance, including, but not limited to, the director or another adult/student singing along or playing an instrument during the unaccompanied scale, the student will be disqualified.
D. When labeling the files for submission, do not include any identifying information.
This includes, but is not limited to: John Smith_T1_DCHS, JSmithT1DCHS, T1DCHS. This will ensure that the judges cannot identify the student or school that is auditioning. Save your recordings as student initials and voice part-example: JS Alto and JS Scale
V. Selection Procedure
A. Once the submission window has closed, the webmaster will open the judging window for directors (henceforth referred to as judges) to score the students that auditioned.
B. Judges will listen to each recording and score according to the rubric.
C. Schools or directors that can be aurally identified on audio recordings will result in his/her student submission becoming DISQUALIFIED without the opportunity to replace or re-record. If you find identifiable information during judging, please mark all scores as 0 (zero) and email webmaster@etva.org with the submission number.
VI. Notification of Results
A. Results will be provided to directors as quickly as possible.
B. All-East Chorus assignments will be available within 10 days after submissions are judged.