• Students who will be joining Lawrence University in the Fall of 2013 will have New Student Auditions on September 16-17. 
• Returning students will be auditioning May 28-30, 2013. 

Here's a quick guide to your successful Cantala audition:

1.  Vocalizations
We’ll begin with vocalizations throughout your range.  We’re listening to see both the upper and lower extensions of your range, but equally importantly, how comfortably you move through your voice and where your voice seems to lie most happily.

2. Tessitura
We’ll ask you to sing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” in a variety of keys.  We are looking to confirm our impressions of your ideal voice-range in the choral setting. 

3.  Preparation:
"Carmina Chromatico," by Orlando di Lasso
Please be prepared to sing the entire motet on your voice-part. We will establish the key and give you your starting note, but you will sing it unaccompanied.

4. Dexterity:
We will ask you to sing scales from Do up to high Re and back at different starting notes throughout your range.  You should be prepared to sing it at quarter note = 92.

5.  Tonal recall
  We will play a series of four notes, and then ask you to sing them back on [la].  We will continue with progressively more difficult patterns of four and five notes.  This gives us a chance to assess your listening/hearing skills.

6. Rhythmic Reading
We will ask you to clap out a given line of music, and then continue with progressively more difficult passages.

7. Sight-singing
We will ask you to sing a given line of music in whatever way works best for you – whether that is Solfege or ‘la la la’ or something else is entirely your choice.  We will continue with progressively more difficult passages.

CANTALA, the Lawrence University Women’s Choir, is a select ensemble comprised of women (mostly freshmen and sophomores) whose fields of study represent the broad diversity in a liberal arts education. Founded in the fall of 2000, the choir performs a wide range of unique and challenging literature that includes traditional women’s literature, world folk literature, and contemporary works such as From Behind the Caravan (Songs of Hafez) by Abbie Betinis, Veroslav Neumann’s Lamento di Arianna abbandonata, R. Murray Schafer’s Snowforms, Susan Botti’s Cosmosis with the LU Wind Ensemble, and Debussy’s Nocturnes with the LU Symphony Orchestra. In addition to its own repertoire, Cantala annually joins forces with the Lawrence University Concert Choir, Viking Chorale, and Symphony Orchestra in performances of choral-orchestral masterworks. These ensembles have combined for performances of Pärt’s Te Deum, Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs, Brahm’s A German Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Verdi’s La Traviata, Handel’s Messiah, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Penderecki’s Credo, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Cantala is proud also to have the opportunity to perform and record new compositions by established and emerging composers from around the world as well as LU faculty and student composers.

Although still in its infancy, in the second year of its existence the Women’s Choir (Cantala) was selected to perform at the 2001 Wisconsin State Music Conference. Later that same year, they were invited, along with the LU Concert Choir, to perform as a demonstration choir for the 2002 WCDA convention. In 2003, the Women’s Choir (Cantala) was selected to present its own program at the WCDA State Convention, and for the North Central ACDA 2006 Regional Convention in Omaha, and for the 2011 National ACDA Conference in Chicago. Other notable performances include singing for Lawrence University President Jill Beck’s Inauguration Ceremony, Oconto Falls Artist Series, guest artists for the Appleton High Schools Women’s Choir Festivals and the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir Spring Concert.

In the fall of 2006, the LU Women’s Choir officially changed its name to Cantala. Over the course of several years, a choir retreat story tradition was established. “Fireside chat with Mr. Swan” involved a discussion about the five principles we can learn about leadership and community from geese. These principles became a cornerstone for the ensemble. Consequently, in searching for a unique and appropriate name, we wanted to somehow involve the geese. In 2006, our choir president, Heidi Jastram, and her father “invented” a Latin name for the group. Cantala is actually the merging of two Latin words. “Cant” is the Latin root for “to sing” and “ala” translates as “wings.” The intended meaning is: “on wings of song.” The suggestion was an immediate hit and soon adopted as the official name of the ensemble.