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Message from the Governor (September 2022)

Dear Texoma Colleagues,

I hope this message finds you all well and having a wonderful start to your fall semesters. Please read this email thoroughly as there have been several changes to auditions procedures from the national office that we are needing to implement as we return to in-person auditions.

The registration process for the Texoma NATS Conference and Auditions will open on Wednesday, September 14 and close on Wednesday, October 12 at 6 p.m.  The conference will be held at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU), in Canyon, TX, November 10-12.

Eligibility to Register:To register students for the Student Auditions, you will need to be up to date on your NATS national dues. You will access the registration process through the NATS website at www.nats.org. Login at the NATS website, click on Member Home, and then scroll down until you seen the green box “NATS Audition Registration.”  This will take you to the AuditionWare registration program. Please be aware that it can take up to 24 hours for your dues to roll over into the registration website; this means, if you do not pay your dues until October 12, you will not have access to the registration website in order to register your students in time. Your best bet to make the process as easy as possible is to go ahead and check now that your dues are up-to-date and that you are able to get into the registration system, regardless of when you plan to register.

Registration in AuditionWare:Detailed instructions for accessing the registration program, navigating the program and troubleshooting this process can be found at: https://www.nats.org/_Library/NSA_Files/Accessing_the_NATS_Auditions_Registration_System_-_PDF_instructions.pdf

On the AuditionWare website, you will register your students for the auditions as well as your own conference attendance. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to purchase the following:

  1. Meal vouchers for WTAMU for Thursday, Friday, and/or Saturday. The cost of each voucher is $6.75.
  2. Recital tickets: November 10, 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are $20 when purchasing through AuditionWare with your registration or $25 at door.  Featured artists are bass-baritone Greer Grimsley, bass-baritone, and Keith Chambers, piano.
  3. Opera tickets: November 11, 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are $15.  Postcards from Morocco, by Dominick Argento
  4. Parking passes: __. 

Before you begin to register students, you will need the following information for each student. Please be accurate with the information as it is used in the submission process as students advance towards the National rounds. In addition, you are able to save and leave the audition program if you find you need to complete it at a later time.  You may find it useful to have students fill out the Pre-registration Information Form.  Your students’ and pianists’ email addresses MUST be correct as they will be sent emails in order to verify their compliance with the NATS copyright policy.

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Phone Number
  • Email
  • Birth Date
  • Audition Category
  • Pianist Name
  • Pianist email address.

A few reminders and some helpful hints:

  • Ensure that your students have an art song in English. This is a requirement of all categories at the classical NSA auditions.  It must be an art song, not an aria or musical theater selection, and English must be the original language.
  • Please ensure that you have the correct number of languages represented for your students’ categories (i.e. categories 7-10 must have at least 3 languages represented).
  • As a reminder, if you are submitting students to the auditions, you must be present and available to judge for any session over the entire conference. 
  • Remember that teachers are not allowed to play for any students under any circumstances (i.e. even if you are submitting students for the high school divisions only). 
  • Please be sure that you have your correct school listed under your judge’s profile and that this school exactly matches the spelling and capitalization of the school your student attends. It is highly likely that your college or university is already available in the drop down menu, if your school has submitted students before. Please check here first, before entering it yourself. If you are an independent teacher, please list your school/studio as “Your Full Name Private Studio” – e.g. “Daniel Hunter-Holly Private Studio”
  • American Negro Spiritual Categories (ANSC): When you register a student for the ANSC, they will not count against your total number of students.  You may enter a maximum of six students for the ANSC. 

Some extra resources that you may find useful:

If you should need further assistance in regards to the upcoming conference or auditions, the following points of contact will come in useful.  For questions regarding…

Student AuditionsDaniel Hunter-Holly (Daniel.HunterHolly@utrgv.edu) – Auditions Chair 

Audition RepertoireDebi Popham (debipopham@gmail.com) – Assistant Auditions Chair

Registration/PaymentGreg Brookes (gregory.brookes@ttu.edu) – Treasurer/Registrar

SOTYMelinda Brou (Melinda.Brou@tamuk.edu) – Texoma Region Governor

Conference VenueMatt Oglesby (moglesby@wtamu.edu) – Site Coordinator

Conference Artist SeriesSan-ky Kim (s.kim4@tcu.edu) – North Texas District Governor 

Texoma WebsiteLily Guerrero (lguerrero@tlu.edu) – Webmaster

I look forward to working with each of you in the coming months and to seeing you at WTAMU in November!

Best wishes,Melinda