Correct billing: Ball State University Singers

The Ball State University Singers is a production of the School of Music and the College of Fine Arts. The organization was established during the 1964-65 school year. The Ball State University Singers experience is offered for academic credit and is directed by a full-time member of the Ball State faculty.

The word “singers” is potentially misleading; the cast of University Singers has always included--in addition to singers/dancers--instrumentalists, technicians, writers and arrangers, choreographers, and administrative support personnel. All of these are “University Singers”, but not all are just strictly “singers”.

The name University Singers reflects the elevation of Ball State from a “Teacher’s College” to a “University” in January of 1965. University Singers was founded to reflect the contemporary and progressive spirit of the “new” Ball State University.

“The Nation’s Number One Entertainment Organization”:

University Singers won two nationwide competitions, the Bob Hope Collegiate Talent Search in 1977, and the Keynote Collegiate Showcase in 1990. In each case, a panel of nationally known entertainment-industry judges awarded the first place trophy to University Singers in recognition of artistic merit, youthful enthusiasm, and professional growth.

“Indiana’s Official Goodwill Ambassadors”:

The title was bestowed by the Indiana General Assembly in recognition of statewide, national, and international concert tours. University Singers have toured in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Crete, Romania, Latvia, Poland, the USSR, Greenland, Newfoundland, Labrador, France, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

Membership in University Singers

Membership in the cast of the Ball State University Singers is open, by audition, to all Ball State students. Competitive talent auditions are held in the spring for the following concert season. The majority of cast members are not music majors, and therefore represent all seven colleges within the university. All cast members re-audition every year. The current cast includes twenty singers/dancers, ten instrumentalists, and five sound, lighting and stage technicians.  Former cast members have used their performance skills to reach fame in television and films, on Broadway and in grand opera, and in theatres and concert halls around the country. Others have gone on to successful careers in business, industry, education, and the arts, even in the government diplomatic corps.

Production Activities

University Singers provides an opportunity for creative exploration in a broad spectrum of entertainment arts. In addition to their onstage roles as singer/dancers, instrumentalists, and technicians, cast members are responsible for show design, script writing, song writing and arranging, choreography, tour planning, budgets, publicity and promotion, costumes, set, and library maintenance.  Planning and preparing the University Singers show takes place in a School of Music Production Center that includes a mirror-lined rehearsal studio, administrative offices and workrooms, music library, and storage space for costumes, sets, and sound equipment.

Costumes

Custom-made designer gowns and costumes are created especially for University Singers by Rivar’s Show Apparel of Albany, Indiana. Rivar’s, a nationwide costume manufacturer and distributor, was founded by Jane Rivar Welch and Beth Rivar Slusher, sisters who are former University Singers cast members. Sets of sequined gowns are laundered by hand, one set at a time, to insure uniform wear and color fading.

Sound Reinforcement

University Singers travels with state-of-the-art stereo amplification and onstage monitor equipment. Wireless microphones, amplifiers, speakers, and special effects are controlled through a thirty-six channel sound board. Student sound engineers major in Music Engineering Technology, a combination of physics, music theory, and instrumental or vocal performance.

Transportation and Logistics

Costume cases, rugged touring sound amplifiers and speakers, more than fifty musical instruments, custom built staging units and sets are transported in an equipment truck.  In addition to student production activities, bookings and travel arrangements are supported by full-time personnel in the School of Music.  Other production activities--printing and publication, publicity and promotion, bookkeeping, scheduling, set construction and facilities planning, still photography and videography--are supplemented by faculty and staff throughout the university.

Show Content

Every University Singers performance is designed around a “musical variety show” format. Each year the show content--repertoire, staging, choreography, solos, small ensembles and dialogue is an outgrowth of the unique aggregate personality of the cast. The show routine is modified for each specific occasion and audience--sometimes as the show is in progress on stage!--by the director/producer Jeffrey Carter, who serves as host and master of ceremonies.  Musical versatility is a University Singers hallmark; any given show might include songs from Broadway, Top-40 and current country hits, comic novelties, inspirational and patriotic favorites, dance features, big band charts, and even opera arias and instrumental concertos.

Schedule

The University Singers calendar includes, in addition to regular rehearsals and production meetings, “run-out” road shows for Indiana schools, arts councils, and civic organizations. On-campus performances often include the President’s Welcome Week convocation, Homecoming pep rally and parade, the Family Weekend Variety Show--which they have hosted for over thirty years--and the annual University Singers SPECTACULAR on the Emens Auditorium stage. Auditions and interviews for cast members are held each spring on the Ball State campus.

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