Membership
How auditions and membership work
The NZSSC operates on a two year cycle. Auditions for the 2019-2020 NZSSC are now complete. Our next auditions will be held in late 2020 for the 2021-2022 choir.
To be eligible for choir membership, applicants must be full-time students at a New Zealand secondary school, including Correspondence School, or home-schooled. This includes auditioning during Year 8 for membership in Year 9-10 and auditioning in Year 12 for Year 13 plus first year of university/post school. Students must have a good voice and musical knowledge.
'There’s nothing quite like being able to represent your country at an international level!'
'The choir has brought me to a much higher level of singing and musicianship than I ever thought I would reach.'
From NZSSC members' survey
Commitments
Once selected, NZSSC members commit to:
- Attending all scheduled rehearsals. Rehearsals are held during each school holiday from late January 2019 to July 2020. Dates will be confirmed upon acceptance into the choir. Members can only be excused from rehearsals with a request in advance to the NZSSC Music Director via the Executive Officer. Leave may be approved for pre-arranged international trips, international school tours, national representation.
- Being available to tour internationally in April 2020 (NZSSC tours have previously been in July)
- Covering costs associated with travel and rehearsals, which are equalised among all members and kept to a minimum through funding from agencies such as Creative New Zealand as well as trusts and sponsorship. NZSSC membership costs for the full 2019-2020 cycle will be approximately $6,500 including the international tour.
See the Auditions page or Get in touch with our Executive Officer, Anna Bowron, if you would like to know more about joining the NZSSC in the future.