Join Us

Auditions

We are currently recruiting sopranos, altos, tenors and bass singers. You can join Eclipse Choir now and get involved in our summer concert. Please email members@eclipsechoir.com for more information and to book a time.

Ideally we are looking for those singers who have some experience singing in choirs, and are looking for a new challenge and to progress their musical journey. We have a soft audition process, the aim being to meet with you in person and find out your general level of musical skills and singing ability. Note: sight-reading is a nice-to-have, but not essential as we also help people learn to sight-read and provide audio recordings in advance to assist learning new pieces. (Many people in Eclipse didn’t sight read at all two years ago, but are now tackling notation with a lot more confidence, ability and success!)

Auditions will take place at our studio for about 15 minutes each. To book an audition, please contact us directly at members@eclipsechoir.com.

 

More about Eclipse Choir

We have two choirs, the Total and Focus Choir groups. All choirs are led by Jim and music is taught from musical scores and backed up with audio resources to support and assist independent learning/rehearsal and personal development with singing. Repertoire is varied and selected specifically for each choir group. Expect to sing music from a wide range of styles, genres, tastes and also be ready for some musical experiments!

The Two Eclipse Choir Groups

Please note our rehearsal dates will be Mondays and Thursdays in Kingston Upon Thames.

Group 1 – The Focus Choir, rehearsal day THURSDAY 7:30pm- 9:30pm – this is an audition-entry, performance-focussed, fun choir with ambition and a limit of up to 40 soprano and alto voices. It is aimed at those who love to sing but also love the process of learning. This choir is for those who enjoy working on the finer detail and are happy spending quality time doing so. We will be putting on regular performances in and around the local area, we’ll get involved in festivals, make our own sound recordings and much more!  If you’re a singer looking for a greater depth of understanding and experience with musical interpretation, technical detail, performance, who wants to improve musicianship and reading from notation, are committed to the idea of “a choir that works hard, plays harder”, then we want to hear from you! If you’d like to be a part of this choir then please apply for an audition below.

Group 2 – The Total Choir, rehearsal day MONDAY 7:30pm- 9:30pm – this is an audition-entry, performance-focussed, fun choir with big ambition and is limited to 28 mixed voices. This choir is led with the aim of producing  the best possible version of itself. We are looking to attract singers who specifically love to and want to learn more, have strong individual ambition to improve and are prepared to strive for higher standards of performance all the way! Singers in this choir will respond well to instruction, take and perform given direction, work positively with Jim, make their own notes during sessions, practise away from rehearsals and take a proactive approach to singing well. Singers should be able to work independently with musical notation, are able to rehearse away from choir for one to two hours each week, are open to or are already receiving private vocal tuition and should have some performance experience. We will be  performing regularly, taking on sound recording jobs, recording our own performances, and much more. If you’d like to be a part of this choir then please apply for an audition.

Term Structure and Fees – a brief outline:

Each choir rehearses once a week for two hours in All Saints. Each term is a minimum of 13 weeks. We often don’t recognise bank holidays and half terms and rehearse straight through these to avoid a break in continuity and diary confusion.

From May 2023 the Focus and Total Choir will cost £182.00 per term (£14 per week). This includes all musical resources: printed scores, online rehearsal tracks and any additional sessions Jim runs in his studio. You can pay monthly by direct debit to spread the costs over 12 months. There are 3 terms per year and dates are published on our website calendar.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Jim and Cheryl – the Eclipse team!