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Welcome to the web-site of the Alabama Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

2010 Student Adjudications 

Happy New Year, AlaNATS Members!  

The University of South Alabama is looking forward to hosting you for the annual National Association of Teachers of Singing Alabama chapter student auditions on February 19-20, 2010 with the NATSAA competition beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 18th.  We are pleased and fortunate to have Dr. Thomas Rowell serving as our host and experienced registrar.  

You will find the registration information here.  If you have a colleague who does not have access to email or the internet, please download these materials for them. Return your completed forms and fees to Dr. Rowell by the postmark deadline of FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5.  Classifications 5-12 will sing on Friday, February 19 and Classifications 1-4 and 13-34 Saturday, February 20.  All teachers are required to be available to judge on both days.  If you have a conflict, you must arrange for a NATS member in good standing, who is not entering students, to substitute for you.  

Our day will begin with a mandatory business meeting (brunch) on Friday, February 19th at 11:00 a.m. in the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center (room 1230) on campus.  You may choose not to eat but you must attend the meeting because we will be instructed concerning judging procedures.  At the conclusion of our meeting we will go to the first round of auditions that begin at 1:00 p.m.    

Included in this mailing is an accompanist form and a staff accompanist form.  Please provide these for your accompanists and return completed forms to Dr. Rowell with your other registration materials.  You will find the staff accompanist fees listed on the student application. Singers with staff accompanists will be notified where to meet for rehearsal.  All staff accompanists are asked to be available by noon on Friday and 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, and will rehearse with students in the order they arrive at the designated rehearsal rooms.   

Here are a few friendly reminders:  review the category and repertoire guidelines carefully as you complete your forms especially the newly adopted guidelines for the Music Theatre categories.  Be sure to include your e-mail address on your teacher registration form.  This will help us to keep the e-mail list current and insures your receipt of the auditions schedule by e-mail.       

 Finally, please collect ALL student fees and submit ONE check for the total of the teacher and student registrations, lunch, and staff accompanist fees.  Fees for your own accompanists should not be sent in with your registration.  Of course, only AlaNATS members in good standing may enter students in the auditions, so please renew your membership at www.nats.org 

I look forward to seeing you at the University of South Alabama in February. 
Best wishes for a successful new year!    
Sincerely,  
 Sharon L. Lawhon, D.M.A.
Governor, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Alabama Chapter 


 
 

The Southeastern Region of NATS recently voted to add new categories in the Musical Theatre portion of our auditions. This means that there are a LOT of changes in our classification numbering system this year. If you have been to www.sernats.org and reviewed the updated guidelines, you will notice that the formatting of the guidelines has transformed a great deal as well.

In order to accommodate our adherence to the regional guidelines AND to our “creatures of habit” nature, (and to not overwhelm everyone with all the changes) I have kept the OLD formatting of our guidelines with the NEW categories and repertoire requirements of each. Next year, we will adapt the formatting of the guidelines that the Southeastern Region uses. I conferred with our Regional Governor, Dr. Toni Anderson, and she gave the chapter permission to proceed in this manner.

The guidelines that we are using this year are in compliance with those of the region.
Please read the updated guidelines CAREFULLY. The following changes have been made:
ALL musical theatre classification numbers have changed.Repertoire requirements have been added and adjusted in musical theatre (arias and art songs are no longer required in upper classifications), and specific language has been added regarding the number of languages that must be present in collegiate classifications 5-12.The number of composers represented in collegiate musical theatre categories is specified.According to the language of the regional guidelines, the date of a musical theatre PREMIERE, is the determinant in satisfying the requirements of classification repertoire in the musical theatre categories. 1965 is the year that is the dividing point in these categories. PRE-1965 means that a work premiered BEFORE January 1, 1965.New copyright/photocopying information has been included from NATS.
Please double check all your student entry forms BEFORE submitting them. If you have a student entering any musical theatre category, don’t forget to include the premiere date of each selection.If I can be of any assistance to you in trying to decipher all of the new info, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at trowell@usouthal.edu. You can also refer to www.sernats.org as well.
Looking forward to hosting you in February!!!!

Tommy Rowell

(1) Each judge shall evaluate each singer and provide comments using the form provided. When all singers in a classification (or divided classification; see point 3 below) have sung, each judge shall list in order the top five singers and shall report this to the tally room on the form provided. (A judge may elect to leave any or all of the positions vacant.) The individual judges shall not confer in making these rankings.  

(2) The rankings of the three judges shall be added in the tally room. In the event of ties, the three judges shall be called together by the auditions chair to consult and select the top three singers. The judges may select fewer, but not more, than three singers. 

 (3) In the event that a classification has more than 20 singers, they shall be divided into two or more substantially equal groups for a first round of auditions. The top three singers from each division shall be invited to a second round. In the second round, each singer shall sing one selection, of the student’s choice, for three judges who did not hear the first round. These judges shall follow the procedure described above to select singers for the final concert. (No comments are provided in this round.) 

 (4) Those students selected in each classification shall sing in a final concert. At this concert, all members present shall rank these singers on ballots provided for this purpose. (No comments are provided in this round.) These ballots will be collected and counted by the auditions chair. On this basis of these rankings, the singers will be presented with certificates of merit that record first-, second-, and third-place achievements. 

 (5) No monetary awards will accompany these certificates, but the state chapter, upon request by the student will provide financial support to enable participation in regional auditions. The level of support is determined by vote of the membership at the annual meeting.