About

The University of Warwick Chamber Choir is the only fully auditioned ensemble at Warwick. We rehearse Tuesdays 17:00-19:00 in term time in the Ensemble Room at the Music Centre, under the direction of Associate Artist Suzzie Vango. We sing a wide range of styles within the choral world, from your choral classics in Tallis and Byrd to contemporary composers with world premieres of music freshly commissioned and everywhere in between.

Auditions

Our 2024-25 auditions will take place on Tuesday 1st and Thursday 3rd October (week one), with a sign up sheet in the Music Centre.

Stage 1: Individual Auditions

Stage 1 Auditions will last for 10 minutes and will be run by Suzzie Vango (Conductor of Chamber Choir). You will be required to sing a short piece (up to 3 mins in length); this can be accompanied or unaccompanied, but please do bring an additional copy of the music if you require accompaniment. There will also be some short vocal exercises to explore range and vocal technique, and some sight reading.

Stage 2: participation in the Free Concert 

All those audition will be expected to participate in the Free Concert chorus rehearsal on 3rd October. Following this rehearsal there will be a shortlisting and those shortlisted will be expected to participate in the rehearsal and concert, as part of the ongoing audition process. The dates are as follows:

• Thurs 3rd October: rehearsal, 7pm - 9.30pm, Woods Scawen Room
• Tues 8th October: rehearsal time tbc,
• Wed 9th October, FREE Concert, 7pm, Butterworth Hall

Places will be offered to successful candidates, and rehearsals start on 8th October.

Repertoire

UWCC’s wide ranging repertoire spans sacred, secular and folk music, performing everything from Byrd and Handel to Cole Porter with the same dedication and understanding. In the past, UWCC have appeared on BBC national television in the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition, live television in Greece, on Central Television with Caliche with whom a CD of Ariel Ramirez’ Latin American Misa Criolla and Navidad Nuestra was recorded (the British première recording), and have given performances of The Messiah and the Mozart Requiem with world famous orchestras including the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. Most recently, UWCC and the University of Warwick Festival Orchestra performed Handel's Dixit Dominus at St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry.

UWCC performs in a variety of locations, both in Warwickshire and further a field, with annual tour destinations including the UK, Spain, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, France. Recent tours have included Budapest (2024) and Milan (2023) with a domestic tour to Oxford in 2024.

Example of a UoW Chamber Choir programme:

Contacts

If you are feeling worried at all about the audition process, are at a slight loss as to what piece to sing, or have any more questions at all then please feel free to email the Chamber Choir President, Nathan Shepard nathan.shepard@warwick.ac.uk or Choir Director, Suzzie Vango: suzzie.vango@warwick.ac.uk. Until then, we will have some welcome events in freshers week that anyone is encouraged to come along to, so be sure to check out our Instagram pageLink opens in a new window for updates as they come. We look forward to meeting everyone!