Audition

Thanks for your interest in joining the Fog City Singers! This page describes our audition process and the overall commitment expected of our singers.

→ Before auditioning, please read our COVID Policy.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE IN FOG CITY?

The Fog City Singers (“Fog City”) are a Tenor-Bass a cappella chorus in San Francisco, aiming to bring a contemporary treatment and appreciation to the barbershop style. The group flexes from 20 to 50 voices—all volunteers—depending on the project, and, in addition to being a great place to sing at quite a high level, Fog City is also a wonderful community of humble and friendly humans. Moreover, we’re a chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, which means we go to conventions where we meet and perform for lots of other singers from around the region, the country, and the world.

To keep motivation high, we organize ourselves around tightly scoped projects that are self-contained, exciting, and slightly too ambitious. (We agree with Leonard Bernstein: “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”) Prior to the pandemic, each project was typically a “concert set” consisting of ~3 months of weekly rehearsals to learn and memorize ~10 songs on a theme, with ~2 concerts at the end of the term. See sample concert videos here or concert programs here.

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
— Leonard Bernstein

Some logistical clarifications:

  • You’re auditioning for the group, not just for a project. If you’re in, you can stay in as long as you’d like. If you step away for more than a few months, we may re-audition you—partly to check that your skill set hasn’t rusted, and partly to ensure that you’re truly bought in again!

  • Rehearsals are generally on Mondays from 7pm - 9:30pm. We book the room until 10pm in case we’re on a roll and want to go a little later, and to simply allow our singers to relax after rehearsal, get to know each other, and sing some barbershop tags. We also occasionally rehearse on other days of the week—and sometimes weekends—to avoid holidays or to accommodate a coach’s schedule. We’ll publicize all project dates before each project begins.

  • Singers must explicitly opt in or out of each project. This helps ensure a stable, highly motivated roster for each project (which makes rehearsals more rewarding, helps us figure out part balance up front, and so forth). We collect opt-ins and opt-outs via a Google Form just before the start of each project.

  • If you opt in, plan to attend ~all rehearsals. COVID makes planning more difficult for each of us, but in general, if you opt into a project, we’re relying on you to attend all rehearsals for that project, save for maybe 1 or 2, as well as the performances. If you’re going to be absent, please tell us ~days or weeks in advance if possible. Times the number of members, this policy helps ensure that each rehearsal is worthwhile!

  • By joining Fog City, we’ll also ask you to become a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society. This allows you to sing with us at conventions and also helps fund our chapter activities, which include booking spaces, paying for music, and helping fund travel for members in need of financial assistance. There is an annual fee associated (a couple hundred bucks), but the fee is low for singers 26 and under.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M A GOOD FIT FOR FOG CITY?

We’re looking for strong, conscientious singers who apply feedback and learn music quickly, yet who are humble and lovely to be around. Vocal tone is a major factor for us: barbershop is all about ringing chords, so we look for clarion, “ping-y” voices rich in both fundamental tone and higher partials. Accountability is also important: we look for singers who would be “leaders” rather than “leaners” in a typical choir setting.

Style

We want Fog City to be a potluck of masters from different musical styles. Barbershoppers, opera singers, choir nerds, a cappella geeks, jazz geniuses, soloistic riffers, rockers, theater performers, and shower-singing savants are all represented and welcome. We encourage you to demonstrate your stylistic “spike” during your audition. We’re eager to hear anything from Mariah to Mozart!

Musicianship

We memorize all of our music, and we provide learning tracks to help our singers accomplish this outside of rehearsal rather than plunking notes in rehearsal. Many of our singers are comfortable sightreaders, which helps us move more quickly, but some members also rely heavily on auditory learning without reading music that well (it’s quite impressive how good their ears are!). That said, comfort with basic rhythm, phrasing, notation, and musicianship will be crucial for understanding musical direction and applying it quickly in rehearsals.

MINDSET

We’re looking for singers who are driven, humble, kind, self-aware, a little quirky, and eager to learn (both music and craft). Together, these qualities constitute “culture fit.” We do take this seriously! We’ve rejected candidates in the past who were talented singers but a poor culture fit.

HOW DO I AUDITION?

Email contact [at] fogcitysingers [dot] com, and tell us which voice part you’d like to audition for. Our Audition Team will coordinate with you to schedule an exact date and time for your audition via Calendly. Auditions happen in batches at specific times in between projects; We will tell you when the next audition date(s) will be. Plan to arrive ~15 minutes prior to your audition, just to be safe.

FORMAT

Your audition will take place in front of a small group of chorus leaders. No other candidates will be present. The experience is relaxed, informal, instructive, and collaborative: we want you to do well! Further, you are not competing against anyone else when you audition—if every auditionee meets our bar, we’ll accept everyone!

Your audition will last around 20 minutes.

I. Exercises. We'll first guide you through some scales and other exercises to get a sense of your vocal and musical ability. No preparation is needed for this facet. Remember to sing fully and openly, with the mindset of being a “leader” rather than a “leaner.”

II. Solo. Perform a 45-60 second solo of any song - a cappella, that best showcases your voice and personality. It can be anything: an aria, a pop song, a jazz standard, a show tune, etc. Please be prepared to really perform the selection with the necessary emotions and appropriate body language. You may also be asked to sing snippets of the piece utilizing 2-3 other emotions of the audition panel's choosing. This will help us gauge your flexibility and control of intent.

III. Quartet. Perform I’d Love to Live in Loveland, memorized, in a quartet with three of our music leaders filling out the other parts. Please strive for note, rhythm, and word perfection. This will help us evaluate your ensemble-singing skills, memorization skills, and detail-orientedness. After the first run-through, we'll give you feedback and ask you to you sing through certain portions again. Here are the learning materials:

SUMMARY: TO-DO LIST

  1. Email contact@fogcitysingers.com to schedule an audition for a particular voice part.

  2. Prepare a 45-60 second solo.

  3. Memorize your preferred voice part on I’d Love to Live in Loveland.

  4. Show up for your audition!

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And that’s everything! Remember that we’re rooting for you. Let us know if you have any questions!