Competitions · Humanities and writing · American Protege Vocal
American Protege, the Vocal Competition.
Four minutes if you are at school - the tightest limit anywhere in this series. Pop repertoire is not accepted, and no partial songs or shortened versions either. What you send has to be complete and it has to be short.
Read this first
Four minutes, and it has to be a whole song.
Two rules interact here in a way that shapes the entire repertoire decision, and singers who miss it choose a piece they cannot use.
School students get four minutes
The shortest allowance in the American Protege series. College, professional and amateur entrants get five. Elsewhere in the series the limits run to six or seven.
And no shortened versions
Part-songs and abridged versions are not accepted. You cannot solve the four minutes by cutting a longer piece down - the work itself has to fit.
Which narrows the repertoire sharply
A great deal of standard vocal repertoire runs past four minutes. Choosing a song that is complete inside the limit is the first and hardest decision.
No pop, either
Pop repertoire is not accepted in the audition. The organisers direct pop singers to their separate We Sing Pop contest.
At a glance
The essentials.
The competition is designed for singers who want to test themselves in a competitive field, and is open to solo singers and vocal groups of any age, nationality and country. Everything is decided on a submitted video.
- Who can enter
- Solo singers and vocal ensembles, school students and adults, of any nationality. Adults have no upper age limit
- Age groups
- Young 5 to 10, Junior 11 to 14, Intermediate 15 to 17, Amateur 18 and over without a professional degree, College and Professional Singers 18 and over
- The 18-year-old question
- The intermediate band stops at 17 here, unlike the rest of the series. Confirm with the organiser where an 18-year-old school singer belongs
- Time limits
- School groups four minutes. College and professional, and amateur, five minutes
- Repertoire
- Anything except pop. No partial songs and no shortened versions
- From memory
- Required, with no repeats. Ensemble music need not be memorised
- Changing repertoire
- Not permitted after the application is submitted
- Application deadline
- Early to mid-June
- Results
- End of June, published on the organiser’s website
- Fee
- $200 solo, $150 per member for an ensemble. Non-refundable
The age bands, compared
Where a singer sits depends on which competition they enter.
The American Protege competitions do not share age boundaries. For a singer who could enter more than one, this table decides which field they land in.
| Competition | Young | Junior | Intermediate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vocal | 5 to 10 | 11 to 14 | 15 to 17 |
| Piano and Strings | 5 to 10 | 11 to 14 | 15 to 18 |
| Romantic Music | 5 to 10 | 11 to 14 | 15 to 18 |
| Woodwinds and Brass | 5 to 9 | 10 to 13 | 14 to 17 |
| Concerto | 12 and under | 13 to 18 | - |
| We Sing Pop! | No bands - open from age 4 | - | - |
A fourteen-year-old is a Junior in four of these competitions and an Intermediate in Woodwinds and Brass. An eighteen-year-old school singer has an Intermediate place in Piano and Strings and Romantic Music, and none here. Check the band before choosing the competition.
Where singers belong in the series
Four of the seven will take a singer.
Voice is accepted in several of these competitions, on quite different terms. The right one depends entirely on the repertoire.
Vocal - anything but pop, in four minutes
The broadest classical and art repertoire, and the tightest clock. This page.
Concerto - an aria or a folk work
Singers there must perform an opera aria or a folk or traditional piece, from memory, with orchestral or piano accompaniment. Narrower, but five or six minutes.
Music Talent - Broadway, jazz, folk, your own
Six repertoire routes including musical theatre and original composition. The place for a singer outside the classical canon.
We Sing Pop! - pop, and only pop
A separate contest for pop singers, with a Billboard route and a four-minute limit for every age.
Recording a voice
Four things singers get wrong in the video.
The audition is one unedited take, and voice is the hardest instrument to capture honestly. The judges are scoring tone, so the recording is part of the performance.
Balance against the accompaniment
A piano recorded close and a voice recorded far away produces a submission where the singing cannot be heard properly. Getting the two in proportion matters more than the quality of the camera.
Room, not reverb
A live room flatters a young voice and an added effect does not. The recording must fairly reflect the singer, and processed audio works against that.
The title has to be exact
Your name and the precise title of the work must appear in the video description. For song repertoire, that means the full title as published, not a nickname.
And one take means one take
From memory, no edits, no splices. For a singer that is a complete performance with nothing to hide behind, which is why it needs rehearsing as a recording rather than as a lesson.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares a vocal entry.
The four-minute limit is the whole shape of the problem, and it is a good constraint to work against.
Finding a complete song inside four minutes
Not an excerpt - a whole piece. There is a great deal of good repertoire at that length, and finding it is a genuinely useful exercise for a young singer.
Choosing for difficulty as well as fit
Difficulty is one of the five scored criteria. A short easy song that sits comfortably will score differently from a short demanding one.
Recording in one take, from memory
No edits. For a singer that means the whole song has to be right at once, which is a different kind of preparation from a lesson or a concert.
And confirming the band before applying
If the student is 18 and still at school, ask which group applies here before paying the fee. The published bands leave that case unresolved.
Talk to an advisor
Hanlin does not coach American Protege Vocal. Ask what it does coach.
The services below are real, but not for this competition. An advisor will say plainly whether there is a route here and what is worth entering instead.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
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Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
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IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
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A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
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Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
The Vocal Competition, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
How long can I sing?
Four minutes for school groups, and five for amateur, college and professional entrants. These are the shortest limits in the American Protege series.
Can I cut a longer song down to fit?
No. Part-songs and shortened versions are not accepted. The work itself has to be complete within the limit.
Can I sing pop?
Not here. Pop repertoire is not accepted in the audition, and the organisers direct pop singers to their separate We Sing Pop contest.
What are the age groups?
Young 5 to 10, Junior 11 to 14, Intermediate 15 to 17, Amateur 18 and over without a professional degree, and College and Professional Singers 18 and over.
Where does an 18-year-old still at school belong?
The intermediate band here stops at 17, while elsewhere in the series an 18-year-old school student enters Intermediate. Confirm with the organiser before applying.
Can I change my song after applying?
No. Repertoire cannot be changed once the application is submitted. Changing the piece for the winners’ recital is possible for a $55 fee, submitted with a new video link within two months of the concert.
What does it cost?
$200 solo and $150 per ensemble member, non-refundable. Our Piano and Strings page lists the whole series fee schedule, including the add-on charges.
How is it judged?
On the submitted video alone, by a panel of four, against the five criteria used across the series. There is no feedback and no appeal.
What happens if I win?
You perform one work at Weill Recital Hall in New York - and the judges choose which of your audition pieces it will be. Travel, accommodation and accompanist are at your own expense.
When does it run?
Applications close in early to mid-June and results are published at the end of June.
Related
The other American Protege competitions.
Seven run each year, on different calendars and repertoire rules.
Vocal Competition enquiries
A whole song, in four minutes, in one take.
The clock here is tighter than anywhere else in the series and abridging is not allowed, so the repertoire choice does most of the work. Tell us the student’s voice and what they have been studying and an advisor will help find a piece that fits.