Attendance:

 

There are no formal rules governing rehearsal attendance, and great reliance is placed on the individual chorister's discretion and on their willingness to get specific advice, if necessary, from the choir director on this issue.

While perfect attendance is encouraged, our experience has been that even fairly devoted choristers will have to miss several rehearsals over the course of a Choir season. This seems to be a fact of life, particularly in our north country, when people have to schedule in trips from time to time. However, our experience has also shown that, in a large group, it is possible to rely to some degree on the knowledge of other fellow choristers, and that this enables our group to continue to advance in learning new pieces, even if some proportion of the choir happens to be missing. Nevertheless, it will always be important for those missing rehearsals to work especially hard to take advantage of alternate means of learning the piece, either by working directly from the score, with rehearsal tapes, or at sectional rehearsals.

The number of rehearsals that may be safely missed by a chorister will depend upon the type of musical work then being undertaken by the choir, and by the skill level of the singer. As a general principle, the less experienced the singer, and the more complicated the work, the more important it will be to keep absences down to an absolute minimum. Specific direction should be sought from the director if long absences are foreseen. Other factors that may come into play include the timing of the rehearsal and the specific role of the singer, particularly if a solo role is involved. The closer to show time, and the larger the part, the more important it will be to attend.