Auditions
FALL 2025 POMONA COLLEGE CHOIR AUDITIONS (MUS 31):
Click here to sign up for a Fall 2025 audition.
Membership in the Choir and the Glee Club is open to all students enrolled at any of the Claremont Colleges or Claremont Graduate University by audition. Except when studying abroad, members of the Glee Club are required to be active, reliable, and strong members of the Choir or the College Orchestra for both semesters.
Pomona College Choir
The audition for the Choir is relatively light, consisting of various exercises to determine voice range and pitch memory. There is also a bit of sight-reading, though nothing too strenuous. Auditions for this ensemble are held in the first week of classes each fall. Interested students should come to 211 Thatcher and sign up for an audition slot on the sheets posted on the bulletin board; these will be posted the week before classes begin. With few exceptions (such as study abroad), students selected for the Choir should expect to participate for the full academic year; students gain most by participating for four years. Those hoping to join in the spring term should contact Professor Di Grazia no later than December 1st of the preceding fall term.
Pomona College Glee Club
Auditions for the Glee Club are held in the first week of the spring semester; expectations and specific dates are announced in late October or early November. In addition to demonstrating strong skills during the Pomona College Choir audition, Glee Club auditionees are expected to learn their part for the assigned audition piece (distributed a few days ahead of time) and to sing it in a quartet with three other singers, each of whom sings a different part. Successful Glee Club auditionees are strong musicians who have shown an ability to learn a great deal of music quickly, and who have demonstrated their readiness to work within a small ensemble, where blend and musical sensitivity are essential. All members of the Pomona College Choir are encouraged to audition for the Glee Club regardless of class standing.
Why should you be part of the Choir and/or Glee Club?
The opportunities college life offers will require you to make choices from among a wide variety of exciting things. Here are some of the many reasons why singing in one of Pomona’s curricular choral ensembles is something worth prioritizing:
- To broaden your education in a way that taps into your creative spirit. This is a worthy goal in and of itself.
- To reap the health benefits of singing. Numerous studies in neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and other disciplines single out music, and choral singing in particular, for the positive effect it has on its participants, improving one’s sense of self, reducing depression and stress, and building a social bond for the greater good.
- To enrich our artistic environment/community outreach. Singing in the Choir (and Glee Club) offers a unique and important kind of community outreach. It is a free public service whenever and wherever we perform that not only benefits the student/faculty/staff at Pomona and the greater Claremont Consortium, but also the residents of the cities of Claremont, Pomona, and surrounding local communities. The impact you have is often unseen, but it is a powerful and positive one.
- To further develop interpersonal and professional skills that are important for a successful life. Among these skills are the ability to listen deeply, to think and engage your imagination to solve problems, to communicate with others, to focus, to make decisions, and to work as part of a team. Employers and graduate/professional schools of all kinds (including medical and law schools) look for people who have developed these skills over the long haul; personal relationships also benefit from them.
- To sing intellectually challenging works of art at a high, creatively satisfying level. Once you graduate, it will not be easy or practical to find similar opportunities to sing, or to be intellectually challenged while doing so.
- To engage with unfamiliar music. Singing with the Choir and Glee Club provides an opportunity to engage with pieces that may have never crossed your path before, or to sing something more familiar in a new way. This is one of the big reasons you’re coming to college: to explore new, unfamiliar things.
- To meet fun people who share your love of singing. Some of them may become life-long friends.
- To refine your musical skills in preparation for avocational (or professional) musical opportunities after college. Alumni of our choral program frequently report that their experiences here are a significant reason why they have been able to continue their engagement with all sorts of music post-graduation. A recent alumna (a non-music major) who tours with her bluegrass trio, for example, credits her ability to become a professional musician to the skills she learned in our choirs. Many recent alums sing in their local choirs; a good number of them sing professionally.