Tim Seelig, artistic director of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, has written a user guide to help choruses think through rehearsal considerations in the time of COVID-19.
Singers
Use this singer information form template to gather information during the audition process.
The practice of Feldenkrais can help singers perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. In this video, Feldenkrais practitioner Karen Clark demonstrates how to train the powerful tongue muscle to cooperate with rather than hinder the singing process.
Use this form to evaluate your singers during auditions. Includes range, sight-reading, and vocal quality measures.
This table of contents template will serve as a guide as you prepare your organization's handbook.
Believing that the chorus was a corporate entity with a spirit of kinship, famed conductor Robert Shaw used the warm-up period to focus on matters of tuning, tone color, ensemble blend, acoustical conditions, and development of the dynamic palette. We've compiled several of his warm-ups.

SPONSORED STORY FROM A CHORUS AMERICA PARTNER
Music education - and inspiring a new generation of singers - is central to the mission of Albany Pro Musica, which has been elevating choral music in New York's Capital Region since 1981. Now, the chorus is embarking on its largest educational project yet, launching the inaugural Pro Musica International Choral Festival to be held in the summer of 2023. In partnership with the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen’s University in Ontario and the University at Albany, this new festival will bring students across the U.S. and Canada together to study and perform with distinguished faculty and world-class musicians. Thanks to a generous grant from Bader Philanthropies, Inc., the costs of tuition, room, and board are fully covered for every participating student.
With its longstanding commitment to working with young singers, Albany Pro Musica understands the value of bringing in a top-notch faculty to engage with the students, including one person with whom the Chorus America community is certainly familiar. We asked Rollo Dilworth, our current board member and past chair, a few questions about the inaugural festival, where he will serve as festival guest conductor and composer, and direct the closing performance including a new work commissioned from him for the festival.

SPONSORED STORY FROM A CHORUS AMERICA PARTNER
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Steve Smith was five months into his new job as president of Berkshire Choral International (BCI) with a mandate to reset and re-energize the summer program for a new generation of choral singers. COVID-19 then forced cancellation of all BCI live events for both 2020 and 2021. After a two-year gap of in-person programs, the summer of 2022 has seen a much-anticipated reopening. Chorus America checked in with Steve to see how the return is going and what lessons he and the organization have learned.

Many choruses and choral leaders are wondering if their organizations should require vaccination as a condition of returning to in-person rehearsal and performance as safely as possible. Their first question: “Is that even allowed?”
In the U.S., under federal law and current guidelines, choruses—like other private employers and organizations—can require staff, volunteers, and audiences to get vaccinated in most cases. Below you’ll find more detail about the guidelines around each of these cases, as well as some important things to consider.
Alongside research into treatment of COVID-19, scientists around the world are conducting studies that are identifying the most effective ways to avoid contracting the virus when people choose to be near each other. Across the country, several choruses are applying some of these findings in an effort to develop safe ways to resume a behavior the pandemic has made especially risky: singing together in the same space. This story examines ways they are approaching the challenge and lessons they are learning