How To Maintain the Quality of Your Chorus from Year to Year

We gathered tips from a variety of choral music professionals at a recent Chorus America Conference. Participants included music directors, board members, executive directors, staff, and singers represented a range of choruses—small ensembles and symphonic choruses, children's and adult groups, groups with a paid core of singer and those that are all volunteer, and those that re-audition singers every year and those that don't.

Strategy 1: Create Exciting, Challenging Programs

“The repertoire must be challenging enough and interesting enough to attract and keep good singers,” said one chorus manager. A number of choruses list the repertoire for the coming year in their advertisements for auditions and some describe the choral works in detail in announcements.

“Singers will gravitate as high as they can go and they have a choice,” a board member said. Many choose—and stay in a chorus—based on the repertoire.

Strategy 2: Re-Audition Singers Every Year

This is a touchy issue for many community choruses—especially those with long-time members.

“The issue of re-auditions and being honest with singers affects retention,” one participant said.  “I cringe to think what happens when a new singer comes in and is excited about making great music and is seated next to a singer who really needs to retire.”

One conductor re-auditions his singers while sitting behind a screen. “If they don’t speak to me, I can’t tell who it is,” he said. “That anonymity provides a little bit of an insulator so that it is about the voice, not the person.”

Strategy 3: Provide Tools and Training for Singers To Help Them Improve

A number of choruses offer regular programs to help singers refresh their skills and voices. Some bring in outside coaches and vocal experts to do group voice lessons.

“An outside person can walk up and say, ‘Fred you’re not doing that quite right and here’s how,’” one participant said. “That way it is not personal.”

One chorus invited voice teachers to rehearsals to do short individual lessons. “You pull one person out at a time to do a lesson downstairs and then they come back and join the group,” a participant shared. “Singers loved the situation.”

Several conductors provide extra help to singers before rehearsals to work on tricky passages, breath support, or whatever other issue they are struggling with. Choirs also have a regular sequence of sectionals, where the assistant conductor or a vocal coach works with one section to get at specific issues. “You can be more direct about things that pertain to one section,” a participant noted.

Conductors use various techniques during rehearsals to raise singers’ awareness of issues of blend and vocal production. For example, “I have two singers in a section stand up and sing, and then three,” one conductor said. “Then I place them according to the blend, so it is recognizable for the rest of the choir to hear how placement affects the sound. We tend to be more realistic about what kind of a singer we are when we are listening to others in our section, and it makes us aware of whether we are meeting the standards.”

Strategy 4: Deal Honestly and Forthrightly with Problem Singers

This is perhaps the most difficult task for choruses intent on attracting and retaining excellent singers, but it is an essential one. Some choruses mitigate the problem by limiting the number of years that a singer can participate: the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s rule is 60 years old or 20 years in the chorus, whichever comes first.

“This is choral tough love,” one conductor said, “dealing with those voices that really shouldn’t continue. You want to prepare people and be as understanding as you can be, but the minute you give the downbeat for the next rehearsal you will thank yourself. There is a difference, and it is not just musical. Everyone understands that this is for real.”

A number of choruses try to intervene early with problem singers—offering the possibility to continue on if there is improvement. “If I think someone will have trouble in a year or two passing their audition,” one conductor said, “I tell them a year ahead of time that their acceptance this year is conditioned on their taking voice lessons. I give them some names of teachers and the issues they should work on.”

If there is no real possibility of improvement, several choruses inform singers at the beginning of the choral season that this will be their last year. "I explain that I need to take the best singers I hear,” one conductor said. “They have time to prepare mentally, to receive the appreciation of their last year, and when they leave, we make a big deal out of it.”

Involving the singer in the decision is also an option. A conductor might say to the singer, “I see you have been in this chorus for 35 years. Have you given any thought to when you think it might be your final year?” They then may suggest other ways to serve the organization—as an advisor, board member, special events coordinator. “Keeping them involved is very important,” one participant said. “It is their community, their social world. Have them host a donor luncheon, or something that keeps them part of the community.”

Strategy 5: Provide Different Levels of Involvement in the Chorus

Increasingly, choruses are programming works that do not require the full chorus. This strategy opens opportunities for more skilled singers to shine, while not excluding the other singers for the whole season.

“If you are going to do Israel in Egypt, let everyone know that for this repertoire it is important to have a smaller ensemble,” one participant said. “This gives your more able singers a really satisfying experience. And if a singer is asked to sit out, hearing the concert from the audience can be a revelatory experience for that singer.”

Another chorus offers singers with 20 years in good standing the option of singing a reduced season. “They can sing a couple of concerts that I designate where there is a low exposure factor vocally, and they don’t have to audition every year,” the conductor said. “It gives them an opportunity to begin thinking about rotating into a less active way to be a part of the choir and still be engaged.”

Strategy 6: Make Expectations for Membership Clear and Stick To Them

The choruses represented in this discussion all had singer handbooks with rules and policies available online. Their struggle was how to enforce those rules uniformly and equitably.

One chorus required singers to commit to all the concerts of the season, but inevitably a handful of folks begged off after the major performance with the symphony in the spring. “They come up and say they can’t do it, that they are so busy this time of year,” the conductor said. “One bass did this every year. I finally said, ‘I’m sorry, can’t have you in the chorus.’ He was amazed.”

It is important to take a stand, another conductor noted. “If someone pulls something like that and they get away with it, then others will think it is okay,” he said. “If you want to put a stop to it, you have to address the entire group. ‘In the past, people have bowed out of concerts, and that won’t happen again.’ Make it a policy decision and put it in writing. It means they are out for the season and must re-audition for next season.”

Equal clarity is needed about rehearsal attendance, most of the participants agreed. “If you miss 15-20 percent of rehearsals, you have to sing for the director on a particular day, which is set out in the calendar, two weeks before the concert,” one conductor said. “The fear of having to do that is quite a motivator.”

Several choruses said they made no distinction between excused or unexcused absences from rehearsals. “Either you are there or you are not,” a conductor said. “Attendance gets better if they are more honest about their own ability to sing a concert.”

Other choruses periodically report the number of singers missing at a rehearsal or a vocal workshop. “I did it as non-judgmentally as possible,” the conductor said. “It did raise awareness of how many people were actually gone.” Several choruses have a sign-in sheet at rehearsals that is visible to all: One chorus had the sign-in sheet on the piano next to the conductor.

One conductor said he needed a bit more discretion to decide singers’ readiness to sing a concert. “I’ll say, you are a great singer, but you need a lot of rehearsal to be prepared. Others in three rehearsals are ready to go. I tell them straight out. You have to trust the artistic director to make the calls to get the best artistic excellence.”

Several choruses “dangle carrots” to encourage full attendance at rehearsals. “We may have small ensembles or quartets for a concert,” one conductor said. “If you are not at the main rehearsals you are not considered for these. It can be hard to say no when it’s the best tenor in the group, but you have to.”

One chorus scheduled its auditions for solos at the end of extra sectional rehearsals. “If you are not at sectionals, you will not be considered,” he said.

Strategy 7: Talk Openly and Honestly about What Is Required To Maintain Excellence

“Our singers would benefit from hearing us talk about the artistic sustainability of the organization,” one participant noted, “so they can understand and weigh that against their strong desire to continue to sing as long as they are able.”

A conductor of a symphonic chorus said that the first rehearsal after some singers have been cut from the group often is a teachable moment. “It is obvious someone is not there,” he said. “I can say, ‘We had the best group of new singers audition, we welcome you, this choir is getting better, and you have to demonstrate that you are getting better. It is not enough to stay at the same level for 20 years. We all have to improve.’"

“To the extent they understand that the artistic director takes that seriously, the choir becomes much better, and most people will work to improve themselves.”