Joining AUCS
AUCS is the ultimate balance of quality singing and having good fun. We are a choir of over 100 members, with a typical 60-80 singers on stage at a concert. We perform high-class choral music even with no auditions required to attend, and we have lots of fun while we do it. You will get the chance for many fantastic experiences singing in a huge choir with great soloists and orchestras.
Dr Kate says: "Come and join AUCS!"
Anyone can join AUCS. There are NO AUDITIONS, and you do not have to know how to read music or sing in order to join - you can learn from the other singers around you. Aside from singing, AUCS offers plenty of social opportunities for members, from regular things like dinner before the rehearsals and pub afterwards, to other occasions like quiz nights, formal dinners and interstate travel to Intervarsity choral festivals.
Membership
AUCS tries to keep membership costs as low as possible, particularly for our student members. This year membership costs $15 for full-time SA University/TAFE students ($2 if it's your first year in AUCS), $30 for part-time students, public-transport concession holders and Adelaide University staff, and $50 for everyone else. Being a member entitles you to attend then for free all Tuesday rehearsals for every concert for the year, free loan of scores during each rehearsal periods, and lots of fun. A weekend residential rehearsal camp (Friday to Sunday) is held before each concert period for which a camp fee is paid to recuperate it cost.
Rehearsals
AUCS at the pub
Being a choir, we like to rehearse. It makes our concerts sound better. AUCS rehearses on Tuesday nights, from 7pm till (mostly) 9:30pm, in the University of Adelaide’s Madley Dance Studio.
Where's that?
To find this, enter the North Terrace campus of the university through gate 14 and go straight ahead until you hit a glass door, with a carpark on your left, and some stairs on your right. Go up the stairs, and Madley Studio should be on your left, a big room with a glass wall, at the northern end of the grassy area that is Pfitzner Court. (See map below.)
What happens if I miss a rehearsal?
We'd love you to come to every rehearsal, but we understand that every so often something else comes up which will cause you to miss one. If you miss a rehearsal, then you miss out on an opportunity to practice your part with the rest of the choir, but you also miss any directions the conductor gives about how pieces (and bits of pieces) should be sung. That's not a big problem, as long as you don't miss too many. If you miss more than a few rehearsals, then you are missing a lot of the musical direction which makes for a good performance, and the conductor may decide that you are not sufficiently rehearsed to sing in the concert. At the beginning of each rehearsal period we will tell you how many you can miss - don't worry :)
Rehearsal Camps
PK conducting at camp,
with Audrey at the ivories.
For each concert, usually early in the rehearsal season, there is a weekend rehearsal camp. These are held at a campsite not too far out from Adelaide (e.g. Adelaide Hills or Normanville). People head up on Friday evening (after they finish work and uni), and head home again late Sunday afternoon. Aside from being a lot of fun, camps are where much learning of the music is done. Four rehearsals (Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning) are held at camp, and it is usually here that the music really starts to come together. While we encourage you to come for the whole weekend, some people choose to drive up just for the rehearsals (or those they can make).
Want to know more?
If you are interested in joining AUCS, come along to one of our rehearsals! If you have any questions, please contact the secretary, Imogen at secretary@aucs.org.au. Answers to some common questions are provided on the FAQ page.
View AUCS rehearsal location in a larger map
