<p>At the risk of sounding even more clueless, are there standard definitions for any of these at the high school or college level?</p>
<p>Probably not. In terms of undergrad experience, they might be audition based, open to all, major (or minor) specific, for credit requirements or student run/club type organizations. It’s really a matter of how each is defined within the institution’s parameters, and typically will require the due diligence of research at any given program.</p>
<p>I wonder how the colleges evaluate the names on applications. </p>
<p>Is it better to have 4 years of Mustang Chorale (I just made that up) or Concert Choir?</p>
<p>Or is all about the audition and no one cares what is on your application?</p>
<p>Mary, I misinterpreted your question. I assumed erroneously that you were trying determine the various requirements and paramaeters of named ensembles encountered when looking into various college programs.</p>
<p>Basically, in an audition driven process, it really is the audition. Resumes and experiences as detailed on the actual apps can be confusing. It’s fairly easy to equate Interlochen, or Juilliard precollege and similar nationally known programs to a level of talent. Where necessary, a modifier or explanation may be necessary on the app or within an essay. </p>
<p>“The Mustang Chorale, a highly selective audition based ensemble performing professionally regionally and for visiting heads of state is an experience that has shaped me both musically and personally…” might be a great personal or supplementary essay as an example. </p>
<p>The Podunk County Concert Choir might be a non-audition based vocal group whose members meet bi-monthly who sing for the sheer joy of it.</p>
<p>My guess is the colleges have no real way of knowing.</p>
<p>My take is to have your son list his participatory experiences in the appropriate place on the apps. High school ensembles might be under the heading “school based experiences”, whereas an audition based community performance group might be better placed under an awards/honors category, as it was based solely a talent parameter. Address those that impacted his development within an essay, personal statement or whatever the application dictates.</p>
<p>I’m not at all familiar with the common app, so if you’re using that, my advice may not work. And others may have valid opinions that differ from what I’ve offered.</p>
<p>Let me see if I can dig up some past related threads.</p>
<p>Here’s one: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/586643-eastman-college-resume-building.html?highlight=resume[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/586643-eastman-college-resume-building.html?highlight=resume</a></p>
<p>You’re pretty safe in assuming it is all about the audition and no one cares about the choral work but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to describe it as accurately as possible. You could describe it as “audition only ensemble” or “member of highly selective madrigal group” - something along those lines. If the head of the choral arts department is on your son’s audition panel and is hoping to find a great tenor or baritone to take the place of someone leaving his competitive, audition-only ensemble, it might matter. There was no choral work at my D’s school so I don’t have any experience with listing it. For years, she was a member of a local childrens chorus whose name was well enough known that people on the panels on the East Coast often mentioned it to her or asked her about it so people really did look at the application and the resumes.</p>
<p>Mary - I think that choirs are named to categorize them in High School for two reasons - 1) the kids in the school understands the ranking and 2) working within local competition regulations. Our auditioned choir of about 60 used to be called Madrigals (when I was growing up, that usually meant a group of 12 that sang…you guessed it…madrigals!). However, we had a disproportional number of girls auditioning, and they decided to create a women’s auditioned group. They decided to call THAT group the madrigals, and renamed the existing group to Chamber choir. To add to the confusion - our show choir performs classical and pop, but no dancing or choreography. From what I understand, show choir in other areas of the country is almost like a dance team that sings.
Some schools award Varsity letters for chorus performance. Ours avoids that like the plague because they want to make sure the Board of Ed is reminded that choral music is part of the curriculum, and not an extra curricular activity.<br>
So, while there are no standards, I’m guessing that colleges will look for consistent participation in whatever your school has to offer.</p>
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<p>No. Every time I have a kid going to a new school, I have to look up which choir is which. Even a “premier” choir may not be the “best”. Usually the premier choir is taught by the most senior professor that wants to teach it. Sometimes the newbie prof teaches the next one, and ends up being better.</p>
<p>Regarding applying to colleges: It is all about the audition.</p>
<p>That said, a Choir school, like St. Olaf, may care if the applicant has choir experience. My son didn’t take Choir until his Senior Year, and it took a little while to learn how to blend (he could overpower the entire male section of the high school choir if he sung full voice).</p>
<p>It’s best to have your S list all of his ensembles on his performance resume and cartera’s advice about description is good to follow. Just a caveat, not all music schools have the same requirements for choral participation as an undergrad so don’t assume anything unless you confirm it with the school (or the group is well-known in the area!)
While some may have a veritable menu of half a dozen or so groups in which to participate-and a student might be required to take part in one or more during the 4 years there- others have none and thus might not be as much of a draw for a student who greatly enjoys ensemble singing.
BeezMom- how about a Show Choir which had a professional choreographer one year and had the girls wearing out their character shoes, and gradually came to a halt, changing characters for ballet slippers and finally, everyone was sitting on chairs, singing slow ballads. You really can’t judge a book by it’s cover!</p>
<p>I would be of the school that it doesn’t hurt to list performing experience, and I agree, listing what the program was about, what the requirements for getting into it are, is probably useful. While every indication I have had, in talking to people who have gone through music programs (mostly instrumental), are applying to them, some teachers in programs who make those decisions, the audition is basically the solid gold standard. However (and I am going to be careful here, because this is what other people have passed on, we haven’t run into this ourselves) it may (keyword may) help in cases where there is indecision about a candidate, where there could be, for example, two candidates who had strong auditions and so forth, and their CV might come into play, about showing what kind of student/performer the person is. Like everything else, I suspect it depends on the program they are trying to get into and the emphasis of the teachers.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your insights.</p>
<p>The schools S is looking at require vocal ensembles all 4 years. And several of the Music Education (his intended major) programs specify a variety of groups. S loves that part.</p>