NATS Student Auditions - Los Angeles Chapter (SEP)
Saturday, November 4, 2023
registration: 9/25 - 10/16/2023
FULLERTON COLLEGE
321 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton, CA 92832
Pay Commercial Music Equipment Fee below:
It's time to register for SEP (our NATS Student Auditions - Los Angeles Chapter - Student Evaluation Program 2023 event)!
Online registration (via our NATS National website) will “open” for current NATS-LA members on September 25, 2023.
THIS YEAR’S EVENT WILL BE LIVE AND IN PERSON!
WHAT IS SEP?
The purpose of our Student Evaluation Program (SEP) is to provide an opportunity for student singers to perform before a panel of outstanding NATS adjudicators in a positive and constructive format. Singers receive written evaluations to assist them in growing as performers and musicians. Outstanding participants are selected to perform in a Special Recognition Awards' Recital on the day of the event.
New this year:
1) NATS National has a new registration system (AuditionNOW), for ALL our audition events. (NATS has severed all ties with our previous registration system [AuditionWare], as of early August 2023.)
2) NATS is requiring that all participating minors have a chaperone for the duration of the event, and that the parent/guardian complete the chaperone agreement form.
AuditionNOW is expected to send out this form to the parents/guardians of minor students. As of now, it seems a little unclear about whether this part of the software will be ready for our registration period.
Therefore, teachers are welcome (and encouraged) to email the form in advance to the parents/guardians of minor students we anticipate will be participating in our SEP event, so the parents/guardians may fill out the chaperone form and email the completed form back to the teacher.
Our National Office urges us to plan our student entries in advance, because our registration period will be shorter than usual this fall.
1) Collect student info.
You may wish to use the helpful “Fillable Form” below to help gather your students’ information.
2) Log in to NATS.org, scroll down the page until you see the following, and click on the green “audition-now” button.
Registration begins: September 25, 2023
3) select “Los angeles” location using the drop down list on the left.
4) using drop down list in main body of page, select “NATS Student Auditions - Los Angeles Chapter - Student Evaluation Program (SEP) 2023”.
5) when this page displays, Follow prompts to input teacher info and student info.
Data is saved, and changes may be made*, as needed, until the registration deadline.
*PLEASE NOTE: Do not pay for your students’ registration until you are sure you have no more changes to make! Once you pay the registration fees, no more changes may be made!
Deadline: October 16, 2023
6) Pay registration fees.
Registration fee - $43 per student per category
Staff accompanist fee - $43 per student per category
CM equipment fee - $8
Students may register for up to 4 categories:
Classical
Musical Theater
CM (Commercial Music)
Hall Johnson Spiritual
Deadline: October 16, 2023
7) Receive Judging assignment(s) and re-familiarize yourself with the rubrics for those categories.
Please review rubrics on NATS.org:
8) plan to attend and participate in judging (all teachers who submit students for participation in sep must attend on 11/04/23 and participate as judges &/or room monitors for the day.
It is strongly encouraged that teachers set aside time to read the most recently updated regulations and category clarifications, to re-acquaint yourselves with the very specific requirements of our auditions. The full document may be found here.
Please read pages 8-15 with particular attention, for useful clarifications regarding repertoire, transpositions, and audition procedures for students.
Please note that some division/category names may have changed - please check these carefully so that your student is registered in the correct division/category.
We will only be requiring TWO selections (out of the requirements' list for that division/category) for ALL divisions and categories for our SEP event*.
*Note: If your students will also be participating in our Cal-Western Regional Student Auditions, they will need to observe the full repertoire requirements (e.g., 3 songs for High School divisions).
There is a wealth of information on our NATS National Website about NATS Auditions. Please refer to it at your leisure.
• Accompanists may play from iPads and other electronic devices, provided that our NATS Copyright Policy is being observed. Please review the Copyright FAQ’s provided by NATS National.
• Matriculated music majors studying in college/university programs are not eligible to participate in SEP*. These students may participate in our NATS-LA Collegiate Auditions held in the Spring, wherein Classical, Musical Theater and Spiritual divisions will be offered.
*However, matriculated college students ARE invited to participate in our Open CM category in SEP, since this category is not offered at our college auditions held in the spring (see below).
Note: CalWestern Regional Auditions open for registration next month. College level singers may register for that event, if they are eager to participate in NATS auditions this semester. Singers do not need to participate in our Chapter Collegiate auditions in order to advance to our Regional auditions.
• TWO song selections will be required for the Classical and Musical Theater Categories, for High School and below.
* Please note that at the Regional and National auditions, THREE song selections are required for High School categories.
• TWO song selections are required for the Adult Categories for SEP only.
• TWO song selections will be required for our added "open" (all ages) CM (Commercial Music) and Hall Johnson Spiritual categories.
• Our CM Category is open to college students studying voice (since there is no CM category at our Collegiate Auditions)
• We will have Adult Classical and Adult Musical Theater categories for students older than High School age, who are ineligible to participate in our Collegiate Auditions
• Fees:
Registration: $43 per student per category
Staff accompanist: $43 per student per category
Commercial Music Equipment Fee: $8 per student
• The responsibility of abiding by NATS copyright policy, AND copyright law now rests with the teachers/parents/students.
Although singers are not required to provide adjudicators with an ORIGINAL copy of their songs, they (and their accompanists) must still be able to substantiate that the scan of the music on their iPad is legal, if asked.
Therefore, please bring one ORIGINAL copy of each song to your auditions. The accompanist may either play from the legal sheet music/anthology, or place it on the piano or somewhere visible if they are playing from a device, so that everyone can be reassured that our copyright policy is being observed.
• For any questions, please contact NATS-LA SEP Chair Susan Wong at auditions@natslachapter.org.