The Tertiary Singing Audition: Perceptual and Acoustic Differences between Successful and Unsuccessful Candidates

Background in music practice. The audition process is used extensively in the arts to identify talent and to determine entry into music conservatoria. Judges must make rapid decisions regarding the quality and training potential of singing voices, however, there is limited understanding of these decisional processes and the criteria on which they are based. Background in music perception and acoustics. Few scientific studies link perceptual judgments with acoustic parameters. The audition process provided an opportunity to investigate these in an authentic singing assessment setting. Aims. This is the first study to evaluate the singing audition process by assessing judges’ reliability in adjudication and the relationship between audition outcomes (voice major, minor and not accepted), descriptions of voices by adjudicators and acoustic indicators of successful performances of singers who auditioned for entry into a Bachelor of Music degree. Main contribution. We observed and recorded a singing audition. The panel of judges was required to achieve consensus in their allocation of students into three groups major or minor streams of the vocal program or non-acceptance into the degree. However, their comments on singers’ vocal quality did not identify specific features that were used to make these allocations. There was no effect of time or day on audition outcomes. There were significant differences between mean SPL in performances of females allocated to different groups but there were no differences in SPL between males’ performances. Implications. Assessment of the audition process in an authentic audition setting raised a number of significant methodological issues about data capture and analysis that need to be addressed in future studies. The challenge is to identify and analyse meaningful acoustic data from a performance setting that does not interfere with or alter the performance or assessment process.