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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

Updated Guidelines
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

National Association
of Teachers of Singing, Alabama
Chapter
Adjudication Instructions, Spring 2010
(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.