How To Recruit Volunteer Singers

We gathered tips for attracting and retaining singers from a variety of choral music professionals at a recent Chorus America Conference. Participants included music directors, board members, executive directors, staff, and singers represented a range of choruses—small ensembles and symphonic choruses, children's and adult groups, groups with a paid core of singer and those that are all volunteer, and those that re-audition singers every year and those that don't.

Here are the key tactics that choruses reported:

Use Social Media

A number of choruses are using social media and the Internet to announce auditions and recruit singers. “The 20 and 30-somethings always find the choir online,” one Bay Area singer and board member said. “We use Craigslist. We put up a description of the group, with the invitation to come and audition. We list the programs for the year and describe each piece. We get a lot of hits.”

Another choir staffer said that some 30 to 40 percent of its new singers came because they were “Googling around and found us.” To get better search engine results, it is important to update your website frequently and to infuse your homepage with words that people might use in their searches—like auditions, for example.

Some choirs have used Google ads and pop up ads on Facebook to attract singers—but with mixed results. “It is not like when you throw an ad in the newspaper where it is a general ad and everybody sees it,” one participant said. “On Facebook everybody has a demographic profile with little key things depending on what you said about yourself. If you don’t use the right key words, you won’t get the hits. Get a social media expert to help with the set-up.”

Another choir said they had stopped using Facebook ads, where every click incurs a cost, and instead encouraged its mostly young singers to post a link to audition information in their own Facebook News Feeds. “Their friends who are about the same age with similar interests will see it, and can click and sign up online for an audition,” he said.

But Don’t Forget Traditional Media Outlets

Almost every choir is scrounging for male members, especially tenors. One conductor said his symphonic chorus had gotten good results advertising in an
independent men’s magazine.

Another suggestion: contact HR officers at large employers in your city and see if they will post an announcement about auditions in their employee email blasts. An added benefit: “Some employers match donations too or will consider hours given to a choir as an in-kind donation that they will match with a dollar amount,” the conductor said.

Invite Prospective Singers to a Rehearsal

Several choruses encourage singers to check out the chorus before auditioning. One chorus has a “bring a dessert, bring a friend” night where anybody can come and see if they like the conductor, the repertoire, the pace of rehearsal, and the other people in the group. “That way it’s not a life sentence,” this chorus’s director said. “It is good for people who think, ‘They are not good enough for me. I’ll be bored.’ They come and they are not bored.”

Be aware that first impressions can go the other way and reveal a choir’s—and perhaps its director’s—deficiencies. One group participant told of a visiting singer who came to a choir rehearsal and left at the break. “She said the choir was not following the conductor at all.”

Reward Your Singers for Recruiting New Members

Singers themselves tend to be the best recruiters. To encourage the word of mouth method, one girls chorus gives members a finder’s fee—a gift certificate to a bookstore—if they refer someone who ends up passing the audition and joining the choir. Another children’s chorus gives the member one month’s tuition free, worth $80. An adult chorus waives dues for a concert when a member succeeds in recruiting a new singer.

“We are constantly reminding people to go through all the steps—think about someone, inform them, then invite them,” one chorus staff member said. Just be sure to remind your members that the singers they refer still have to pass the audition!

Increase the Frequency of Auditions

It is important to respond quickly to people who are interested in singing, several chorus representatives said. That means extending auditions beyond the once- or twice-a-year cattle call.

One large symphonic chorus has three auditions a year. “We have 20 percent attrition rate, which is normal for us,” the conductor said, “So to repopulate, we do auditions two to three times a year, at the end of summer, in the spring, and in the fall.” Another choir holds its big audition in the summer, but if people find them online and ask for an audition, their names go on a list. The choir holds small group auditions before or after rehearsal on a rotating basis all year.

“You need to give an immediate answer to someone requesting an audition,” a choir staffer said. “If we get the request in February, we say, ‘Great, I will audition you in two weeks.’ They are engaged right away. You lose them if they just hang out there.”

Singers themselves tend to be the best recruiters. To encourage the word of mouth method, one girls chorus gives members a finder’s fee—a gift certificate to a bookstore—if they refer someone.

Several choruses tell prospective singers that they will audition people by appointment throughout the year. “If an applicant sends in information, and we are particularly interested, we get in touch and schedule an audition right away,” one chorus representative said.

Provide Child Care

If you want to attract singers in their 20s and 30s with young children, your choir may need to address the child care issue. There are the inevitable cost and liability concerns, but several choral organizations have worked out a solution.

Two choruses that rehearse at churches were able to tag on to the day care or child sitting services available onsite. “We pay them for evening hours one night a week,” a choir staffer said. “And they already have insurance.”

One choral organization had both an adult and a children’s choir, “so we have built-in babysitters.” Teenage members of the children’s choir were happy to babysit the children of adult choir members during rehearsals. In another choir, a group of parents set up a child-sitting coop to care for all of their children during rehearsals.

One chorus allows small babies at rehearsal. “Parents have to leave room if the baby cries,” the choir representative said, “but mostly the babies get passed around without disruption.” In this group, couples with slightly older children asked the choir to give them a break on their tuition. “We did a two for one tuition so we could have them both,” the choir manager said.