Sing With Us
Thank you for your interest in auditioning for The Village Carolers. Auditions for the 2026 are past, and we are now accepting materials for the 2027 season. If you are interested in singing with us in 2027, your materials must be received no later than May 31, 2027.
We are especially looking for singers who do not have a regular Sunday morning church job commitment, as several of our clients request Sunday brunch performances.
To be considered for performance opportunities, please send a link to a video of you performing alone or with an a cappella quartet, along with your headshot and resume, to auditions@thevillagecarolers.com. There is no fee to submit your materials.
Please note: Our performances are not always near public transportation. If you do not have reliable transportation of your own, it will significantly reduce the number of performances you are eligible to sing.
Phase One: If invited to audition, you will be sent three songs from our rep list to learn at performance level. Your audition will be to perform those songs along with a quartet at our base in Medford, NJ. This portion of the audition process will be taking place in middle or late June.
Phase Two: Following the Phase One auditions, selected singers will be given the entire folder of music to learn on their own. This is currently more than 70 pieces of music, which is why the auditions are as early as they are. We don't require you to come to a bunch of unpaid rehearsals. You are a professional and are thus invited to learn at your own pace and at your own convenience. That said, if you don't put in the effort and do the work, you're not likely to pass Phase Three.
Phase Three: There will be a required "testing" rehearsal in Medford, NJ where you will be asked to stand and sing at presentation performance level in a quartet in front of the other singers. This will show if you are ready to be thrown to the wolves (performing a cappella in a quartet) or not.
This is not as easy as it sounds!
Any singer who is not prepared at the testing rehearsal will be invited to try again next year, after they have had sufficient time to learn the music at the necessary performance level. All singers who have demonstrated they are ready will be fitted for a costume, and will receive a music folder and light. They will then be assigned to available performance opportunities!
- Read this information before auditioning! -
This is a theatrical presentation, not a church job.
Performance Level: When you sing with The Village Carolers, you perform. You engage with the audience. Your eyes are not locked down in your music. Reference to additional verse text is made as needed during performances, but this does not mean your head is buried in your folder the entire time. You might be an excellent sight-reader. That’s fantastic, truly, but it is irrelevant for this purpose.
Our "presentation performance level" is that every note is so well-known that you don't need to look at your folder for them. It means you're familiar enough with the most commonly performed verses that you pretty much have those memorized. The only time you should be referring to your folder at all is on longer performances when we delve into verses and songs that we don't perform as often.
If you come to the Phase Three testing rehearsal and are stuck in your book, you will not get performance opportunities and you will have completely wasted your time.
Many of our selected pieces contain foreign languages, so you must be comfortable singing in languages other than English. At the present time this includes Latin, German, French, and even one in Wyandot (transliterated).
Mezzos – please note that several of our arrangements tend toward the low side. If you’re not solid on a low A when you’re tired, we suggest you audition as a Soprano rather than as an Alto. Some of our veteran Mezzos learn both Soprano and Alto parts to open up more performance opportunities, but this is not an expectation and is not recommended during your first year.
The majority of our performances take place on weekends. If you have other jobs that take away two out of three Saturdays in December, please don’t waste your time auditioning and learning all of this music. It is likely you will just be disappointed in the lack of available opportunities. We especially get requests for Sundays with performances starting as early as noon, so those who make themselves available during those times will get even more work.
We are solidly booked during weekends from Thanksgiving up to Christmas Eve, and we have dozens of performances each year. Singers who make themselves available can usually count on multiple performances per year, and that number has been steadily growing. If you make yourself available, you’ll get work. We can't give you work if you're not available.
Pay Scale: The Village Carolers is a professional non-union ensemble performed by independent contractors. All performances are paid at the following rates: $85/hr for performances Monday through Thursday, and $95/hr for performances Friday through Sunday. Travel reimbursements are provided thus: On one-hour performances, for distances more than 30 minutes each way; on two-hour performances, for distances more than 45 minutes each way; on three-hour performances, for distances more than one hour each way. We have singers all over the region, so such travel reimbursements are rarely necessary, but will always be provided if applicable.
The Village Carolers does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, creed, gender expression, ancestry, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status in any of its activities or operations. We are committed to providing an inclusive, respectful environment and equal opportunity to all who wish to participate in performing with us in a professional and kind manner.