Chamber Singers

By Molly Burken

The 2025-2026 Chamber Choir singers have been selected! But what’s Chamber Choir all about? You can either ask a Chamber member or keep reading to answer your questions!

Audition Process

Chamber Choir is an audition-based choir. Singers must audition for the choir each year, regardless of previous acceptance. Typically, Mr. Uttech will open auditions to juniors and seniors first, then sophomores if needed. The audition process contains 4-5 components: sight-reading, chords, 4-note recall, part checks, and a short interview with Mr. Uttech. For sight-reading, you get the full solfege scale, then the arpeggio, and you have as long as you need to figure out the notes and rhythms and sing it correctly. There is no judging for how you figure out the notes and rhythms, just how you land on the final product. For the chords, Mr. Uttech plays a 3-note chord on the piano, and you are asked to find the high, middle, or low note. If you find a note in the chord, just not the one asked for, you still get a half-point. Next, the 4-note recall is pretty much what it sounds like. Mr. Uttech plays 4 notes on the piano 2 times, and you then sing back what you heard. A part-check is simply you singing a portion of a song you performed for your normal choir, and a portion of the National Anthem. These are all scored, and you get a combined score out of 50 points. Each mistake, missed note, or incorrect rhythm is a point. Finally, the interview is simply a few questions that can help determine your commitment and what you would bring to the Chamber Choir if accepted.

This year’s group

The 2025-2026 Chamber Choir is composed of a total of 26 juniors and seniors. This is the first time in over a decade that the Chamber singers do not contain any sophomores, and it’s also the largest group yet. There are 12 guys, and 14 girls, creating a wonderful and balanced sound. The lowest accepted score this year was a 40/50, with 1 perfect score, and one singer with a 45.5/50. There were also 10 singers with a 45+ score, doubling from last year’s 5 singers with a 45+ score.

What they do

Chamber Choir is likely most known for their Christmas caroling. They go around locally to sing at businesses, nursing homes, libraries, and even at Ekstrand for the younger students to watch them perform. But they do more than just sing holiday tunes. Chamber singers also perform the National Anthem before some home games.

How is it different from other choirs?

Chamber Choir isn’t simply another choir that does a few extra activities; it’s a select group of singers that sings harder music, does extra activities, and overall is another way to enjoy singing. Chamber singers typically do ensemble entries at Solo & Ensemble Contest, extra pieces for the Pops Concert, and overall just some interesting songs like a cappella pieces and All-State level songs. This means that not only are singers in another choir, they learn twice as many songs, and usually they are encouraged and pushed to sing multiple different voice parts, shifting between songs for various reasons. They also sing in 3 separate choirs at Large Group Contest. The Chamber girls sing with Chamber, Lyrica, and Concert choirs, while the Chamber guys sing with Chamber, Bass Clef, and Concert choirs. This means they learn triple the number of songs, and they have triple the number of performances.

Overall, while Chamber Choir is a fun group of students just making music together, it’s also a group that highlights the talented students within our walls.