When you go to the opera or an oratorio work, there are usually a few soloists and lots of choristers. Sometimes the choristers are volunteers, but frequently, as at the Met, New York City Opera and Carnegie Hall, they are paid. Look at all those paid singing jobs behind the soloists! Many of us consider ourselves strictly soloists-in-waiting, but while we’re waiting, we might as well be singing. I talked to a few singers who have plied their trade as concert and chorus singers in between solo gigs. Here’s what I found out.
The best way to get in on the concert singing circuit or get a chorus job is to first get a church job that includes concerts. That way you get experience and a chance at solo work, and you can build up your repertoire of both solo and choral works. You also get a chance to work on your sight-reading. To find a church job, start by calling the Episcopalian churches in your area. Music is a major part of their church services, and they frequently hire section leaders. Branch out from there. After finding a church job, network like crazy. Somebody usually knows somebody else. After you have sufficiently built up both your repertoire and your contact network, the next step is to get the numbers of choral contractors and audition for them.
In NYC, contractors hire for choral organizations and churches throughout the city. The best way to get in touch with one of these contractors is again through networking. Ask around and see who has sung for these people or their assistants. Trade a phone number you have for one you want. Remember, if someone gives you a phone number, you may be taking their job away from them if you get hired in their place, so give them some valuable information in return. )
The main choral contractors in NYC are Jaquie Pierce, Nancy Wertsch, Cindy Richards Wallace and Martin Doner. Jaquie contracts for most or all of the Philharmonic chorus gigs. Nancy Wertsch contracts most of the Carnegie Hall gigs. Cindy hires for Musica Sacra and a few other organizations. Martin Doner contracts many of the church, temple and substitute jobs, but you can also call many of the big churches directly for an audition. Martin Josman of National Chorale does all his own contracting. He’s in the book. He also hires his soloists from auditions. The Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera hold their own annual auditions for choristers. Those are the jewels of the crown. More on them later.
Next, make a phone call. Be extremely nice, and ask if you can audition next time they are hearing. These people are besieged with singers and usually hear auditions once a year, if ever. Nancy hears auditions once a year, and Cindy doesn’t even do that. Many of these jobs are found by that old method, word-of-mouth. If you can’t sight-read very well, save yourself the embarrassment of auditioning, because the contractors will not hire you, and they will NEVER hear you again. The contractors in NYC have enough sopranos to last forever, but men will almost always get work if they can sight-read.
And now we come to the main prerequisites for getting hired for chorus work. Sight-reading, sight-reading, sight-reading. Oh, and did I mention sight-reading? Perfect pitch is not high on the list. If the work is being done at Baroque pitch instead of 440, or if they need to transpose it, or if it’s going out of tune, it’s harder for the singer, not easier. My sources tell me that you need to be quick about picking things up and learning fast, as there’s usually little rehearsal time. [Editor’s note: singers might consider brushing up on their sight-reading skills with an intensive course such as Liz Fleischer’s excellent Sight-Reading classes] Contractors, whose needs are varied, don’t generally care much how you sound, unless you are the wrong voice type or you sing out of tune. If they are “casting” a twentieth century atonal work, they will most likely call their perfect-pitch singers. If they’re hiring for high holy days, it will help if the singer reads or knows some Hebrew pronunciation. You need to be an ensemble singer and learn to (here’s that anti-soloist word) blend. Choral conductors want a clean, clear sound and sometimes a straight tone, so you need to be flexible enough to go from pop to early music to opera choruses and oratorio.
You need to be a good enough musician so that you don’t need to spend extra time on the piece outside of rehearsal time. One singer told me she only works on something on her own if it’s Russian or it’s an extremely difficult work she hasn’t done before. You need to be the judge of how much extra time, if any, you will need in order to be prepared. After all, you want to get hired again.
In NYC there is a core of about 60 singers who sing the major concert gigs and about 200 who work all the time, aside from the MET or NYCO, not counting the paid church positions. Concert or choral singers frequently sing in more than one group. Same singers, just a different orchestra, venue and conductor. One concert singer said she got her start concert singing in NYC by auditioning for the Gregg Smith Singers and from there networked her way into the circuit. She currently sings about 30-40 gigs a year under the batons of different conductors for different organizations. However, it actually took three to five years to get to this point. She sings in the Met extra chorus, church, temple and choral gigs. A baritone I spoke with sings in around 100 choral performances a year, including his opera chorus job.
Another big tip from one of my sources is, if and when you get offered a job, don’t turn it down, even if you have a conflict. Try to work out the scheduling conflict. If you turn down a gig the first time you get called, the contractor won’t call you again, because there’s fifty more where you came from. In NYC, it is probably better that you don’t work for both Nancy and Jaquie, or if you do, keep it under your hat. The rumor is that since they are competitors, neither will hire you if they know you are on both call lists.
How much money choral singers make will vary. One good thing is that you don’t have to negotiate the fees. Those are determined by the contractor, or if the job is AGMA, by the union. Some chorus work, such as the Met extra chorus, pays $55 per hour, twice AGMA scale. Currently AGMA scale runs between $18-23 per hour for rehearsal and $118-131 for performances. Generally, you do not pay a fee to the contractor, as the hiring organization pays the contractor’s fee. However, one of the above-mentioned contractors is famous for sending singers bills for $5.00!
Sometimes taxes will be taken out of your paycheck, and sometimes not. If you get paid less than $600, you will not receive a 1099 tax form, but you are still required to report the income. One singer I spoke to is doing four hours of rehearsal, two concerts, and one sound-check for a single piece on a program. The pay will be $300. In this instance, the pay is slightly above AGMA scale. If you run around and do church jobs, temple jobs, and every choral gig that comes along, (not being in the Met or NYCO chorus) you can make perhaps $20,000 per year. One year one singer I spoke to made $8000, and last year she made $3000-4000. Choral singing is not steady, reliable income. High seasons are around December and April due to church and temple work. Summer, for the most part, unless you’re out of town on a professional chorus gig, is dead. Most choral singers, unless they are in the chorus at the Met, need to have a day job of some kind.
In Chicago, the contractor system doesn’t exist. Lee Lichamer, who is general manager for Grant Park Symphony Chorus, described an entirely different situation. There, you audition directly for directors of the Grant Park Chorus, Chicago Symphony Chorus and Lyric Opera of Chicago. There is no contractor or middleman, but no fees to pay either. The pay scale is comparable to the NYC area, when it’s AGMA. At CSO there is a system of pay levels that are related to how long you have been singing with the chorus. It starts at $10-12 per hour for rehearsals, $160 for performances, regardless of the length of the performance. With seniority, the rate for rehearsals goes up, topping at around $22 per hour. In Chicago, as in most areas of the country, there are lots of smaller, mostly volunteer choruses that hire ringers on an as-needed basis. Again, word-of-mouth is the way a lot of these jobs are to be had. Nearly all the large churches in Chicago hire section leaders, and the temples hire quartets or octets for high holy days. Call these organizations directly to audition for them.
Lee told me that the Grant Park Chorus looks for great sounds that blend, i.e. NO vibrato. Because of the excess of supply, sopranos must blow them away to get into the chorus, and sight-reading must be nearly perfect. Grant Park Chorus has 20 openings a year, and they hear 150-250 singers for those slots Out of 100 jobs, 40 are volunteer and 60 are paid. You can make about $23,000 as a starter in the Grant Park Chorus, and $55,000 after 14 years(!) They post audition notices on posters around town and advertise in Audition News. They begin scheduling in February for March auditions.
Now for the crown jewels: the Met chorus and the New York City Opera chorus. These are the toughest to get into, but the best paying. You start in the extra chorus (called when the chorus needs to be supplemented) at the Met at $20,000, with roughly three months of work spread out throughout the season, averaging three performances a week and four days of rehearsal. You get into the permanent chorus after one or two years of singing in the extra chorus, only if you are deemed better than the other extra choristers. Some have been extra choristers for years, never making it into the permanent chorus. For permanent, full-time choristers, the pay rockets up to $85,000 with full benefits: health, dental, pension. No matching of 401k deposits. You don’t have to re-audition to keep your job. The Met auditions AGMA singers once a year on a first come, first served basis. The work is nine months long, and the singers earn every dime. Sometimes, when the Met travels to Japan, as they did a few years ago, the chorus gets to go along.
At New York City Opera, the extra chorus starts at AGMA scale. The permanent chorus is salaried, with some benefits, but not as well paid as the Met. The NYCO season is split into two parts, some in spring and some in the fall.
I asked my concert singer friends to tell me about their best and worst experiences. One worked on a Sondheim show with Patti Lupone and George Hearn that was semi-staged at Lincoln Center. Sondheim was on the set daily, and it was one of the most exciting things this singer has done. Another singer said that for them, the best thing was the Verdi Requiem at Carnegie Hall and then in Japan! Worst experiences included anything with a particular conductor, who shall remain unnamed but nonetheless infamous.
Singing in choruses is a great way to keep your chops up, network and keep your ear to the ground for solo opportunities. If you live in a smaller city, ask around. Call the venue where the last big choral gig was held and ask who does the chorus hiring. Check the newspapers in the late summer in the arts section of your paper; there will usually be notices for choruses auditioning for members. In the New York Times Arts and Leisure section, there are dozens of notices, microscopic in size, but notices nonetheless, for auditions for the numerous choruses throughout the five boroughs. Some are mostly volunteer but hire a few ringers. If you need audition experience, consider doing some of these. You’ll get a chance to sing for people, and you may make a contact that will serve you later, or get a solo position for an oratorio. It’s a freebie audition, except for your time. However, don’t waste the organization/contractor’s time if you’re totally uninterested. Remember it’s a small business and things get around, so don’t be cavalier about the audition. [Editor’s note: chorus and solo auditions are listed in Classical Singer magazine every month with many more on the website. You can also be notified by e-mail. See the homepage for more information. www.classicalsinger.com]
