Audition Basics

• Choir auditions are held twice a year, generally in August and January.

• Experienced singers who read music and are high-school age and older are welcome.

• Our music director will meet with you, hear you vocalize, and discuss your musical background and interest in singing with BACH.

• Auditions include scales, tonal memory, sight-singing, and 1 to 2 minutes of any piece of your choice (sung unaccompanied).

Rehearsal Schedule 2026-2027

Join us in our 30th anniversary season for a delightful staged opera plus two concerts of classic ideas paired with fresh approaches, including a commissioned new work!

Handel’s Sensuous Semele: A Collaboration with MIOpera
Saturday, Nov. 7, at Normal First United Methodist Church
Sunday, Nov. 8, in Champaign-Urbana, location TBD

Be dazzled by Semele, Handel’s sensuous drama of desire, ambition, and self-delusion, in a first-time collaboration between BACH and MIOpera, Central Illinois' premiere professional opera company. MIOpera will provide stunning costumes, innovative staging, and breathtaking soloists to tell the witty but tragic story. BACH will supply the dramatic choruses, with orchestral accompaniment. Highlights include Jupiter’s iconic "Where'er you walk," Semele's glittering "Endless pleasure," and her virtuosic "Myself I shall adore," a showstopping aria of self-obsession — remarkably relevant in the age of the selfie. Offered in two locations on consecutive dates.

• Auditions: Sun 8/30 3-5pm

• Rehearsals (7:15-9:15 pm): 8/24 open rehearsal; 8/31, 9/7 LD, 9/14, 9/21, 9/28, 10/5, 10/12 IPD no rehearsal, 10/19, 10/26, and 11/2 at CU performance venue

• Dress Rehearsal: Fri 11/6 at Normal UMC, time TBD

Messiah Sing-along
Sunday, Nov. 29, at First Baptist Church in Savoy

Come share in this community music-making tradition! Join in singing Handel’s beloved choruses, or just sit back and listen. All singing abilities are welcome. We provide the organist and soloists. Bring your own music, or borrow it at the door. No ticket is needed; a free-will offering will be collected. Gather your friends or family for this uplifting highlight of the holiday season. BACH members are encouraged to participate.

Renaissance Reimagined
Sunday, Feb. 28
Location TBD

Hit refresh — musically speaking! Countless composers have looked to the past for inspiration, reimagining familiar sounds for new audiences. Explore that creative evolution as we pair Renaissance masterworks with fresh interpretations from more recent eras. Hear how Andrew Balfour transforms English Renaissance music with Cree and Ojibwe texts, while William Hawley draws on 16th-century Italian poetry for his gorgeous modern madrigals. The program includes Dale Trumbore's Spiritus Mundi and the piece it is based on, Lassus' Timor et Tremor. BACH Music Director Sarah Riskind will also share a brand-new composition of her own.

• Auditions: Sun 1/3 3-5pm

• Rehearsals (7:15-9:15 pm): 1/4, 1/11, 1/18 MLK, 1/25, 2/1, 2/8, 2/15 PD, 2/22

• Dress Rehearsal: Sat 2/27 10:30-1 pm

Joy Renewed: A New Work for BACH’s 30th Anniversary
Sunday, June 6
Location TBD

Composer Dale Trumbore says her mission is to create music that “moves listeners to a better emotional place.” Experience that vision in the premiere of her new work commissioned by BACH and based on J.S. Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude (“Jesus, my joy”) — a beloved motet from BACH’s first concert that returns here, with strings and harpsichord. Trumbore’s writing has drawn praise from The Washington Post and The New York Times, calling it devastatingly beautiful, with soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies. The program includes Johann Michael Bach’s lush double-choir Halt, was du hast, which also echoes Jesu, meine Freude, and additional chamber works.

• Auditions: Audition on 8/30/26 or 1/3/27 to be included in this concert

• Rehearsals (7:15-9:15 pm): 3/29 open rehearsal; 4/5, 4/12, 4/19, 4/26, 5/3, 5/10, 5/17, 5/24, 5/31 MD

• Dress Rehearsal: Sat 6/5 10:30-1 pm