audition with the ggbc
The audition is a series of simple musical exercises through which one of the choir boys or the music director leads the auditionee. The purpose of the audition is to get to know a boy and his voice, determine at a first meeting his musical potential and to screen a candiate for possible vocal problems. Some parents mistakenly think the choir only wants boys who are already trained in music; in fact, we usually prefer to train a boy in choral singing ourselves. Our music staff is well trained in teaching boys, even those with NO PREVIOUS MUSICAL EXPERIENCE!
Singing rehearsals for the choir are held Monday through Friday, and the Bell Ringing rehearsals take place on Sunday evenings. Every boy goes to the reheasal closest to him, but once he has become a minnesinger, he is required to attend two weekday rehearsals. A new boy who wishes to audition is welcome to come to any one of our rehearsals. Each weekday rehearsal is held in different locations throughout the Bay Area:
- Monday rehearsals are at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, in the downstairs choir room. The cathedral is on the corner of Gough at Geary.
- Tuesday rehearsals are at St. Philip Neri Church Church, 3108 Van Buren Street (near High st.), Alameda.
- Wednesday rehearsals are at Our Lady of Lourdes Church at Lake Merritt in Oakland at 2808 Lakeshore Avenue, at Boden Way (near highway 580).
- Thursday rehearsals are at All Saints Catholic School, 2nd Street between “C” and “D” Streets, Hayward.
- Friday rehearsals are in the music room at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 2320 Green Street at Steiner, San Francisco.
- Singer's Saturdays are held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Broadway at Lawton, in Oakland. (Last exit from Highway 24 before tunnel) **This combined rehearsal is held every 2nd Saturday of every month.
All weekday singing rehearsals are from 4:15 to 6:15 p.m. (Except in Alameda, where rehearsal begins at 3:30 P.M.) At each rehearsal, the Performance Group and Mastersingers prepare for upcoming performances, and so they spend a significant amount of time singing. The younger boys who are in the Apprentices and Minnesingers have a combination of vocal instruction and rehearsal, orff instruction, sight-singing and ear-training, and theory.
The times, locations and dates of rehearsals for the bell groups are provided in the monthly calendars distributed to families. Member families also receive a roster which assists in forming car-pools and organizing families by geographic areas.
See Us Perform
We invite you come to one of our concerts or rehearsals to see what the choir is all about.
If you would like to audition for the Golden Gate Boys Choir and Bellringers, please fill out and submit the audition and information packet request form or send an email to auditions@ggbc.org. Once we recieve your email, we will be able to send you more information about the choir.
