Auditions
Auditions for the 2025 – 2026 season will be held this June 9th and 10th in Bethesda. Please submit an audition request form to be contacted about scheduling your audition:
Through annual auditions, Cantate seeks experienced volunteer singers who welcome the challenge of performing extraordinary repertoire in a high-level ensemble. Our two ensembles, Cantate Chamber Singers and Cantate Concert Choir, are regularly hailed for artistically exciting, innovative performances of newly commissioned and rarely heard choral works, as well as celebrated classics from the traditional repertoire spanning five centuries.
Cantate Concert Choir is our symphonic chorus committed to musical excellence and to enriching the musical life of our community through concerts, outreach, and education. The ensemble rehearses Sunday evenings in downtown Silver Spring. In 2025-2026, this ensemble will perform four concerts of extraordinarily moving music – two in collaboration with area orchestras – featuring Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Duruflé Requiem, selections from Handel’s Messiah, and more.
Cantate Chamber Singers, with approximately 32 auditioned, experienced singers, performs a cappella repertoire and works with piano and small ensembles. Singers are chosen especially for their blend with the existing ensemble as well as their strength in musicianship. The ensemble rehearses Tuesday evenings at Ingleside at Rock Creek. In the 2025-2026 season, this ensemble will perform three concerts, featuring Craig Hella-Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard, Margaret Bonds’s Credo, Joel Thompson’s The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, and more . Members of Cantate Chamber Singers may choose to sing with one or both ensembles.
If you have any questions, please contact Sara Josey, Auditions Coordinator, at auditions@cantate.org.
Lift Every Voice (LEV) is a paid fellowship for a quartet of pre-professional BIPOC Singers, who support the Cantate Concert Choir throughout the season. LEV fellows also receive additional career support in the form of resume and bio coaching, private vocal coaching from Cantate staff and collaborating conductors, masterclasses focused on oratorio performance, and a year-end showcase concert open to the public with VIP guests including prominent area choral and orchestral conductors. Auditions are held annually. Read more about Lift Every Voice HERE.