Rio Grande Chapter Conference & Student Auditions

Event Name: 2025 Rio Grande Chapter Conference & Student Auditions
Event Date: February 28, 2025
Event Description: Hosted by Eastern New Mexico University
in Portales, New Mexico

Conference Schedule

Subject to change.

FRIDAY, February 28, 2025
2:00–3:00 p.m. Check in
3:00 p.m. Mandatory Judges Meeting
4:00–6:00 p.m. Preliminary Rounds of Student Auditions
6:00 p.m. Break
6:00 p.m. Student Mixer (dinner provided), sponsored by ENMU Student NATS
7:30 p.m. NATS Members Empowerment* Concert

SATURDAY, March 1, 2025
9:00 a.m. Preliminary Rounds of Student Auditions, continued
11:00 a.m. Preliminary and Semi-final Auditions, as needed
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break & NATS Members Business Meeting
1:00 p.m. Empowerment* Semi-final Auditions
2:30 p.m. Finals Concert
6:00 p.m. End

Registration: February 1–15, 2025

Instructions

NATS has returned to AuditionWare for registration. On or after February 1, log in to NATS.org and scroll down to click “Register for Audition/Conference.” This will take you into the area to register your students for the competition.

Specifications

• Teachers must attend and judge if they have students competing.
• Limits: 10 students per teacher;10 students per pianist
• Fees: $20 per teacher and $20 per student per category
• Repertoire change deadline: Sunday, February 23 (email the auditions chair at ccduke@utep.edu)

Categories & Repertoire

• Categories at Rio Grande NATS include:
o High School
o Post-high School (formerly known as College/Independent Studio)
o Adult
o Classical
o Musical Theatre
o Empowerment* (See additional information below.)
• NATS categories and repertoire requirements: https://www.nats.org/_Library/NSA_Files/Category_document_july_21.pdf
• Texoma NATS Repertoire Database: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rn_FDmcTMG3L4U3dRUX6K_HLWrfVv_Suf0MwUiE-4E4/edit?usp=drive_link
• NATS Policy on Copyright Laws: https://www.nats.org/copyright_info.html
• NOTE: Rio Grande NATS winners do not advance to the National Student Auditions.

*Empowerment

To support our members’ and students’ knowledge of and interest in underrepresented composers, the Rio Grande Chapter is pleased to announce the second-annual “Empowerment” prize. This year’s Empowerment subcategory includes art songs by female-identifying
composers. In subsequent years, we will identify and amplify other underrepresented groups.

Competition

Post-high school finalists whose competition repertoire includes one of these songs will be eligible to compete in the Empowerment semi-final auditions at 1pm on Saturday. The top five finalists in this subcategory will perform in the Finals Concert. A single prize will be given for the best performance in the Empowerment category. How to Designate Your Student's Empowerment Entry Type "+" before the song title. For example, if the song is "Steal Away", you would type "+Steal Away". The normal repertoire requirements for your student’s level must be met. The Empowerment entry is not an additional song, it is an English language or foreign language song or aria that was written by a composer in the designated Empowerment demographic. There is no additional fee required for an Empowerment entry.

Concert

NATS members are invited to perform on the Friday night Empowerment Concert. Each member will perform one or two songs (as time allows) from the designated Empowerment demographic. Interested performers should send their repertoire to the Rio Grande Chapter
Program Chair, Olga Perez-Flora at oflora@unm.edu no later than Friday, February 21.

Venue Information

Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU)
1500 S. Ave K, Portales NM

Questions?

For registration and/or repertoire questions, contact the Auditions Chair, Cherry Duke, at ccduke@utep.edu or the Chapter President, Gregory Gallagher, at gmgallagher.tenor@gmail.com .