Auditions will be held for Department of Music student ensembles beginning Monday, August 29. Our choirs and instrumental ensembles are open to students throughout the University and you are encourgaged to apply regardless of your major. Below, please find specific audition requirements for each of our groups.
Gospel Choir
The Gospel Choir will have an open rehearsal on Thursday, September 1 in 123 Music Building from 6–7:40 p.m. No prepared music needed. Come and explore singing gospel music!
Heinz Chapel Choir
Singers interested in auditioning for the Heinz Chapel Choir can sign up for a 10-minute audition by going to
http://www.pitt.edu/~heinzcc/audition.html and using the online scheduler on that page. Four days of HCC auditions will be held Monday, August 29-Thursday, September 01 in Music Building room 128 (many more details can be found at the link above). Singers can also stop by the Heinz Chapel Choir table at the Activities Fair on Sunday, August 28 (1-4pm) in the Petersen Events Center to meet current members, ask questions, and select an audition appointment.
Men’s Glee Club
No prepared solo required. Sign up for auditions at the Activities Fair on Sunday, August 28 (1-4pm) in the Petersen Events Center. Auditions will be held during the first week of classes.
Women’s Choral Ensemble
Sign up for auditions at the Activities Fair on Sunday, August 28 (1-4pm) in the Petersen Events Center. Auditions will be held at the following times and places:
- Monday, Aug. 29, 4-8:30 p.m., Bellefield Hall Auditorium
- Tuesday, Aug. 30, 4-8:30 p.m., 124 Music Building
- Wednesday Aug. 31, 4-8:30 p.m., 124 Music Building
Carpathian Music Ensemble
No Auditions needed - bring any instrument you play to first class meeting on August 29, Room 309 Bellefield Hall, 4-5:15pm. Registration is 1 credit MUS 0615 Carpathian.
Adriana Helbig, Director
Jonathan Heins, Assistant Director
Pitt Jazz Ensemble
Dates: August 29th and 31st 4:30pm-5:45pm
132 Music Building
Open to all.
Traditional jazz ensemble instruments: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano, guitar, bass and drums. No prepared music needed. Students will be asked to sit in with the band and play through a variety of arrangements of different jazz styles and difficulties. Students will also have the opportunity to play improvised solos.
Symphony Orchestra
Are being held in the afternoons on Thursday, August 25, Friday, August 26, Monday, August 29 and Tuesday, August 30th in Room 216 on the Mezzanine Level of the Music Building. Please sign up for a time – sheets are posted in the main hallway of the music building.
The University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is composed of both music majors and non-music majors who have a strong devotion to music. Our level of performance improves substantially every year and all skilled musicians from throughout the University (students, faculty and staff) are welcome as well as people from the general community. The orchestra is offered as a 1 credit course called University Orchestra - Music 0620. Rehearsals (and most concerts) are held in Bellefield Hall Auditorium on Wednesdays from 7:30 until around 9:50 pm. Additional rehearsals may be held on Monday nights as needed, but this rarely happens. In two or three concerts per semester we play a wide range of music from the Baroque period to the very latest music, and support the activities of other areas in the Pitt Music Department, especially new music composition/performance and (increasingly) interdisciplinary studies.
My office is Music Building Rm. 216 and my phone number is 624 4017. Please prepare two examples of solo music for your instrument - they don't have to be complete pieces but it is certainly OK if they are. They could also be from the same extended movement or larger work and should provide examples of both slow, lyrical and fast, articulate music. For this term I would like to hear orchestral excerpts from Prokofiev Classical Symphony and Brahms Third Symphony, since we are performing those works. Other possible excerpts should be selected from Beethoven (Symphonies 5 and 9 for many instruments), Copland (Third Symphony, or percussionists and trumpet players could play those licks from the Hoedown in Rodeo), Debussy (opening flute solo from Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, cellos - the wonderful divided cello chorus from La Mer), Ravel (winds - Daphnis and Chloe or Tombeau de Couperin) and Stravinsky (Petrushka - most instruments - or Soldier's Tale (clarinet, trumpet, percussionist). There may be some sight-reading and I may request a scale or two.
I look forward to hearing you!
Roger Zahab, Director