The auditioned Berkeley chorus that performs every concert with orchestra has openings in all voice parts for 2026–27. Auditions are Aug. 22, 23 and 30; rehearsals are Tuesday nights in north Berkeley; dues run $150 a concert.

If you can read music, have some vocal training, and have been meaning to sing something bigger than what fits in a shower, Chora Nova is holding auditions this month. The Berkeley chorus (external source, opens in a new tab) — auditioned, orchestra-backed, now in its 21st season — has openings in all four voice parts for 2026–27, and it's recruiting soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

The practical details first. In its recruitment post on r/oakland (external source, opens in a new tab), the chorus lists auditions on Aug. 22, 23 and 30. Weekly rehearsals are Tuesdays, 7:15 to 9:45 p.m., in north Berkeley, per the group's audition page (external source, opens in a new tab), which also spells out the commitment most singers want to know before they show up: a 9-to-12-week rehearsal stretch per concert, one intensive Saturday session somewhere in the middle, and dues of $150 per concert set, plus the cost of your music if you don't already own it. The exact audition location and time come after you submit the group's online form, so start there rather than driving to a guessed address.

What you'd actually be singing is the reason to bother. Chora Nova performs three programs a year and does every one with an orchestra behind it — a real orchestra, not a piano standing in for one. The posted 21st-season schedule (external source, opens in a new tab) opens Nov. 20, 2026 with "Resilience," a program built around Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's cantata written after Berlin's cholera epidemic, alongside Grace Williams and Margaret Bonds. It runs through a Feb. 28, 2027 guest turn with the Mozart to Mendelssohn Orchestra on Dvořák's "The American Flag," a March 13, 2027 French program ("Vive la France!") anchored by Fauré's Requiem and short works by the Boulanger sisters and Mel Bonis, and closes May 22, 2027 with Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers — one of the mountains of the choral repertoire. Music director John Kendall Bailey conducts.

That's a demanding year, which is the point of the audition: this isn't a drop-in sing-along. If you want no audition, no dues and no sight-reading test, that's a different door — the kind Choral Pride or a community jazz band like CSU East Bay's opens. Chora Nova is the version with a bar to clear and a Monteverdi Vespers on the other side of it.

If you're on the fence, do this: pull up the audio and video samples on the chorus's site to hear the room they aim for, then book the earliest of the three audition dates rather than the last — get the first read out of the way while there's still a full season of rehearsals ahead of you. Bring proof you can hold a part; leave the shower repertoire at home.