Choral award application form 2025/26 entry

Completing your application

Reference

Please ensure that your reference is sent to your first-choice college of preference by 15 September. Your application will not be considered with just the application form alone.

Audition arrangements

Choral award auditions will take place on 23, 24 and 25 September 2024. The auditions are held in person in Oxford. Almost all applicants will only need to attend on one day and will not need to stay overnight in Oxford.

If you are resident overseas and would be unable to attend the choral award auditions in person, please contact the Choral Awards scheme co-ordinator, [email protected], for advice in the first instance.

The main audition lasts approximately 15 minutes. In it you will be asked to sing a prepared piece and a prepared unaccompanied traditional song (folk song), and to demonstrate your musical aptitude through a few vocal exercises, ear tests and sight-singing. The director(s) of music listening to you may ask questions to get a fuller picture of your musical interests and activities.

When you choose a piece to perform at the audition it is important to bear in mind range and technique. Select music that displays your vocal and musical capabilities to the full, without going beyond what your technique can support. You do not have to perform sacred music.

You will need to bring two copies of your prepared piece (one for the accompanist and another for the examiner) as well as your own copy if you are not singing the piece from memory.

For choral singers a quick ear and an aptitude for sight-reading are both important, especially in choirs that perform a large repertory. These skills need to be developed as much as the voice and vocal technique. They can be improved with steady work.

Directors of music are aware that a candidate may have been singing for a relatively short period, and will take this into account. But a candidate ought to have had some systematic singing tuition before the audition.

For the traditional song:

• You may choose a song from the list below, or offer an alternative song. If you choose an alternative song, please write to [email protected] by 15 September to inform us what your chosen song is. Your choice should not be a hymn, a piece of plainsong/chant, or an arrangement that involves piano accompaniment. You can choose a song from any folk tradition and can sing in any language.
• If you choose to perform a song from the list below, please perform all the verses that are included in the edition provided here: Traditional song scores. If you choose an alternative song, the duration of your performance must be at least 1 minute and no more than 3 minutes; verses should be omitted as necessary in order to fit into the 3-minute maximum. 
• You may choose the performing pitch.

List of unaccompanied traditional songs (folk songs)

• O Waly, Waly
• The Salley Gardens
• Scarborough Fair
• The trees they grow so high
• The lark in the clear air
• The Ash Grove
• Early one morning
• Linden Lea
• Drink to me only with thine eyes

Copies of these songs may be downloaded from the website.

Academic assessment and results

It is important to understand that your choral audition is only the first part of your application to study at Oxford, and that crucially you will be required to join the gathered field of candidates applying in October and potentially attending interview in December. For this reason, the University cannot confirm a choral award until the whole process has been completed. What happens immediately following the choral audition is that you will be informed by email that you fall into one of three categories:

1. you have been retained as a choral award candidate at your first-choice college
2. you have been retained as a choral award candidate by a lower-choice college (which will be specified)
3. you are no longer under active consideration as a choral award candidate.

If you receive either the first or second email, you should name the college which has retained you as a choral award candidate as your choice of college on your UCAS application.  You will have to take any written test(s) and submit any written work as required for your subject of choice.

The deadline for the UCAS application is 6pm on 15 October.

If you are no longer being considered as a choral award candidate, you can of course still make an application through UCAS for an academic place at Oxford without the option of a choral award. 

Further information

If you have any questions about the choral award application process, please contact us by email ([email protected] or [email protected])

For full guidance on the undergraduate admissions process, please refer to our Applying to Oxford pages. 

More information about music at Oxford is available on the Music Faculty's website.