You are in the midst of your weekly search for audition opportunities and you see that the company which you auditioned for without success in the past is holding new auditions soon. You wonder to yourself, “Should I try again?”
By all means, says Thomas King, professor of voice at Austin Peay State University and former co-artistic director of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Austria. King says there are lots of reasons singers should audition again. “I have new arias. My voice has matured and I want to show them my improvement. I feel more comfortable with these auditioners because I know them now. I was under the weather, but didn’t admit that last time. Today I am 100 percent . . .” King offers as examples. “Auditioning several times proves to me that singer A is motivated and directed and wants the job very badly!”
Other opera companies also encourage singers to audition more than once. “We like to watch people’s progress rather than just having one snapshot,” says Laura Canning of the Houston Grand Opera. “Even this year, we have someone joining the Studio in September who had sung for us the previous year . . . he was relatively successful last year and got through to the final stages of selection, but we didn’t feel he was quite ready for the rigors of the Studio. One of the most impressive things this year was the progress he’d made since we last heard him. It’s much easier to take the plunge to offer a major contract to someone if you feel like you’ve gotten to know them over several hearings rather than just auditioning them once.”
But not all companies are alike. The Atlanta Opera Chorus will hear only singers who have not auditioned in the past. Atlanta Opera Chorus Master Walter Huff says he began limiting the amount of times a person can audition because he wasn’t hearing enough new voices. “It’s not to shut anybody out,” Huff states, “but the nature of Atlanta especially is that it’s such a transitory city; there are people coming in and out all the time.” On the other hand, he encourages singers who auditioned previously to be proactive: “I’m impressed with people who say, ‘I’ve improved—hear me.’ What am I going to say? If they put it out there, I’m probably going to go for it.”
Some local singers have taken Huff’s advice. Atlanta singer Victoria Hawkins first auditioned for the Atlanta Opera Chorus in 2007, and when she tried to audition again in 2010, she was denied the opportunity. So she decided to wait another few years. This year she wrote to Huff saying she believed her voice had improved since she first auditioned and that she had participated in several vocal competitions as well as the Harrower Summer Opera Workshop. This time, she was granted the opportunity to reaudition. Although she was not hired, she says reauditioning gave her the opportunity to prove to herself how much she had grown.
“I was a lot more outgoing,” says Hawkins. “I was a lot more in the character, my voice was definitely improved. I feel like I brought a lot more truthfulness.”
As Hawkins discovered, just because a singer auditions a second or a third time it is no guarantee that the results will be different. This raises another question: How many times or how often should a singer audition for the same company? “If singer A signs up 10 times in 10 years, then that is too often,” King says. “Singer A was obviously rejected nine times and will be rejected the tenth time.”
Singers typically audition for either a particular opera chorus or Young Artist Program two or three times before calling it quits. Because companies themselves will often limit the amount of times a person can audition, singers are advised to use wisdom in choosing the right times to audition and reaudition. Following are a few tips from the experts.
Reaudition when there has been a significant change since the first audition.
If you have changed your Fach or are singing different repertoire, have gone to graduate school or changed teachers, have acquired more language skills, have gained a new level of confidence, or all of the above since your first audition, it may be time to try again. “Sometimes people just aren’t singing the right things then they get with a teacher, and that really clears up,” says Huff. “That can make a huge difference if people are singing the right things for their voice, so I’ve definitely been there where I have said many times, ‘Wow, you’ve really improved.’”
Reaudition when you have incorporated constructive feedback.
“I can check if singer A has taken my advice and lost weight, learned lighter arias, learned French better, etc.,” says King. “Following advice proves they will be a good colleague in the company if hired.”
“We do try to provide as much feedback as possible,” says Joshua Winograde, senior director of artistic planning for the Los Angeles Opera, “specifically to allow a singer to improve those things that we observed that need attention and come back showing us that they understood, heard, and were able to effect those changes.”
Reaudition when the season’s lineup looks promising.
Most of the time, companies hire new singers based on the operas they will be producing. That means singers might want to wait to reaudition until a season includes operas particularly suited to their voices. “Who we hire is not necessarily a reflection of talent, but ultimately determined by what sort of choral texture we require for the coming season,” states Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Gretchen Eng. “A Wagner chorus requires a different sound than a Bel Canto opera chorus.”
Singers might also hold off on reauditioning until they know a season will require a good amount of new voices. This year, for example, was a favorable year for male singers to audition or reaudition for the Los Angeles Opera Chorus. The company will be doing Billy Budd next year, which requires an all-male cast of more than 40 men. “Billy Budd, for example, will offer Grant Gershon (resident conductor of the Los Angeles Opera) the opportunity to bring in and provide opportunities for some new talent as opposed to a Mozart opera calling for 12–18 people,” says Winograde.
Even if you don’t get hired the first time around, you may still be offered a chance to sing with the company down the road. Like others, Huff keeps notes on all singers who audition. “Even if you don’t get in the chorus this year, I have notes on you and sometimes it’ll say ‘look out for this person’ doing something that I know we’re going to do two years from now or even next year . . . so I’m always putting down people I want to watch out for.”
Further, even if you didn’t think you were at your vocal best, you may still be invited back because you displayed other attractive qualities. Eng affirms that every impression counts. “I cannot overemphasize the importance of being professional, flexible, and pleasant throughout the auditioning process.”
Huff says he makes a point of having a conversation with singers in order to get a glimpse into their personality. He says singers who come prepared and who demonstrate some enthusiasm for the company will stand out. “I’ll ask somebody, ‘Have you ever seen an Atlanta Opera production?’ And if they’ve lived in Atlanta for 10 years and they say, ‘No,’ I kind of find that interesting if they haven’t investigated what they’re trying out for. . . . If someone said, ‘Yes, I’ve seen this and I’ve seen this,’ I know that there’s a motivation there.”
Singers then are often remembered for more than just their vocal ability. “Auditions are not based solely on how a singer sings,” states Jay Lesenger, general/artistic director of Chautauqua Opera, “but how they present themselves, what they bring to their operatic material, and how they interact not only with us but the accompanist and audition monitors/staff.”
The old adage “work smarter, not harder” appears to ring true when it comes to the art of reauditioning. Winograde speaks of a singer who is now part of L.A. Opera’s Young Artist Program who had auditioned more than once in the past. He says the audition panel recognized an inherent, natural talent in the singer.
“We recognized all of those things—those elements that we felt she was very lucky to have essentially been born with. But what we didn’t observe is any kind of real grasp on the more sophisticated skill sets required to be a singer—the kind of restraint and deliberateness of it all—essentially rendering her a kind of impressive wild card. And over the last few years, we observed a consistent and very impressive trajectory on which she really acquired those skills, polished them, and was able to implement them deliberately when she wanted to . . . ultimately, we decided to pass her on to a round of the auditions farther than she had gotten in the past. And she ended up really holding her own and proving herself as somebody who was much more than just those lucky elements that she was born with but actually was a smart singer.” Ultimately skill plus perseverance will make for a successful reaudition. As Beverly Sills said, “There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.”
Sills would have known. The operatic soprano auditioned no less than eight times for the New York City Opera before she was finally hired in 1955 to sing the role of Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. The rest, as they say, is musical history. Sills became a star of the New York City Opera and would later become its general manager.
So, go ahead—audition for that company again! As Sills also reminds us with her inspirational wisdom, “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you’re doomed if you don’t try.”
