Chamber Choir

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 choral classics of Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Ralph Vaughan Williams to contemporary composers including Caroline Shaw, Carl Rutti and Ola Gjeilo with world premieres of music freshly commissioned and everywhere in between.

Auditions

Our 2025-26 auditions will take place on Tuesday 7th and Thursday 9th October (week one), with a sign up sheet outside the Music Centre office.

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.

If you have any additional needs for the audition, please let the Music Centre office know in advance so we can best support you. You can come in person during office hours (1000-1600) or email

Stage 2: participation in the Free Concert 

All those audition will be expected to participate in the Free Concert chorus rehearsal on 9th 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 9th October: rehearsal, 7pm - 9.30pm, Woods Scawen Room
• Tues 14th October: rehearsal 5pm - 7pm, Ensemble Room
• Wed 15th October, FREE Concert, 7pm, Butterworth Hall (rehearsal 5pm TBC)

Places will be offered to successful candidates.

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 Prague (2025), Budapest (2024), Milan (2023) with a domestic tours to Oxford and Lichfield in recent years.

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, Youel Hailu or Choir Director, Suzzie Vango: . 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!